Fed and Coastal States Want Repeal of Offshore Drilling Ban

The federal ban on U.S. coastal drilling is being reconsidered, as soaring energy prices and dependency on imported oil impact businesses and consumers.

Energy analysts say that, in order for the United States to stabilize its energy policies, that the bans on offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico must be relaxed or repealed. The Bush administration intends to give the oil industry access in 2007 to a protected area off the Florida coast, which is twice the size of the Arctic Refuge and is rich in natural gas.

Congress is currently considering proposed legislation that will authorize the governors of coastal states to open to drilling their offshore lands, which are currently under the federal moratoria. Last month, Virginia's general assembly passed a bill urging the state's legislators in Congress to push for an exemption of the federal offshore drilling ban.

Congress enacted the first moratorium on new offshore leases in 1981, and, today, more than 90 percent of America's coastal regions are federally protected. An estimated 16 billion barrels and 78 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie in the protected areas, according to government statistics, which is enough to meet the total demand for oil for more than two years, as well as enough to meet the natural gas requirements for more than three and a half years.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton has already sent a letter to Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) signaling the agency's intention to sell oil and gas leases in 3 million acres off Florida's coast that are protected until 2006.