California Legislators Want Permanent Ban on Coastal Drilling

While Congress addresses high energy prices and has tried to ease the 1981 offshore exploration and drilling ban off the U.S. coastline, California Democrats have initiated a counteroffensive.

A flurry of congressional bills have hit the floor, and most of these bills want to lift coastal bans and provide cash hungry states with royalties for allowing energy exploration. California legislators have introduced bills that would permanently ban drilling off their coastline.

One bill states that oil rigs must be at least 100 miles off the California and Florida coasts, a distance that places the ominous rigs out of view of tourists and beachgoers.

Another measure would limit offshore drilling to natural gas, which is meant to ease concerns about oil spills blackening beaches.

The energy crunch has also swayed attitudes; Florida Senators, who once stood firmly against coastal drilling, have actually introduced legislation that would open a section of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to exploration. The bill is an effort to head off a push to allow drilling in a larger area in the Gulf.

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Congress should approve opening up new areas to offshore drilling to send a message that Washington is "serious about taking action to increase the domestic supply of natural gas and to reduce the cost of energy."

However, environmentalists are opposed to any of the drilling proposals. The defeat last year of the bill that would have opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration and drilling has put them on the offensive again over U.S. coastal drilling.

The entire California congressional delegation, including Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and all but one of the state's 23 House Democrats, are backing the bill to permanently ban drilling off the California coast.

If California gets its way, the state would be excluded from any offshore energy surveys, because the legislators say seismic testing would injure marine life.