NATION : Bush Abandons Alaska Trip to Avoid Focusing New Attention on Oil Spill

President Bush has abandoned plans to travel to Alaska next month in the face of continuing negative publicity over the Exxon Valdez oil spill, it was learned today.

Bush’s trip would have been part of a mid-September swing to Montana, South Dakota and Washington. The White House had not officially announced the trip as details continued to be worked out.

The Alaska leg of the trip would have been for the purpose of examining the cleanup progress in the wake of the multimillion-gallon oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez last March. Bush was said to be very intent on going, but one source said the views of other officials prevailed. It was thought it would be unwise politically for the President to renew focus on the oil spill, during which he was criticized for not moving quickly enough to involve the federal government in the cleanup.