[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 28 (Monday, July 21, 2008)]
[Page 986]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Memorandum on Modification of the Withdrawal of Areas of the United 
States Outer Continental Shelf From Leasing Disposition

July 14, 2008

Memorandum for the Secretary of the Interior

Subject: Modification of the Withdrawal of Areas of the United States 
Outer Continental Shelf from Leasing Disposition

    Under the authority vested in me as President of the United States, 
including section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 
U.S.C. 1341(a), I hereby modify the prior memoranda of withdrawals from 
disposition by leasing of the United States Outer Continental Shelf 
issued on August 4, 1992, and June 12, 1998, as modified on January 9, 
2007, to read only as follows:

            Under the authority vested in me as President of the United 
            States, including section 12(a) of the Outer Continental 
            Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1341(a), I hereby withdraw from 
            disposition by leasing, for a time period without specific 
            expiration, those areas of the Outer Continental Shelf 
            designated as of July 14, 2008, as Marine Sanctuaries under 
            the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 
            1972, 16 U.S.C. 1431-1434, 33 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.

            Nothing in this withdrawal affects the rights under existing 
            leases in these areas.
                                                George W. Bush