Packard Adds Oil Lease Tracts Off County Coast to Proposal for a Swap

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), who has proposed replacing five oil lease tracts off Oceanside that are planned for exploration with five tracts off less-populated Camp Pendleton, on Friday suggested a further swap to replace six Orange County tracts with a similar number off the San Diego County Marine base.

“An idea worthy of pursuing is that instead of having six tracts off Newport Beach and five tracts off Camp Pendleton, I’d have no problem sitting down with Congressman (Robert) Badham (R-Newport Beach) and trying to work out a way where we can have 11 tracts off Camp Pendleton,” Packard said in an interview Friday.

While hastening to say he was “not at all anxious to inject myself into (Badham’s) turf,” and that the idea had not occurred to him previously, Packard said, “If we can sit down with (U.S. Interior) Secretary (Donald P. Hodel) and put them (the tracts) all in one place . . . I think everybody would be happier.”

‘A Significant Luxury’

On Friday, a spokesman in Badham’s Newport Beach office reacted to the Packard plan for switching the Oceanside area tracts closer to Orange County waters. “He has a significant luxury of having a huge undeveloped region in his area with which he can bargain,” said Badham aide William Schreiber. “We have no such bargaining chip and don’t have the luxury of shifting our six tracts to an undeveloped area.”

When told of Packard’s offer to explore combining the 11 tracts in the area off Camp Pendleton, Schreiber said, “Obviously, Congressman Badham has not heard this proposal. . . .

“Obviously, we are interested in discussing any possibility of these six tracts being eliminated from the agreement and Congressman Badham would be interested in speaking with Mr. Packard about it,” Schreiber said.

On Thursday, Packard held a press conference to announce his alternative plan to open 45 square miles of ocean floor off Camp Pendleton rather than off Oceanside, where coastal residents have voiced loud opposition.

His plan, Packard reiterated Friday, is a modification of a compromise drafted by Hodel and members of the state’s congressional delegation over ending a controversial 4-year-old moratorium on oil and gas exploration in California waters. He said that when agreeing to the tentative compromise, he had insisted on the option to propose less sensitive areas for a final agreement.

Under the tentative compromise plan, unveiled July 16 in Washington, 150 offshore tracts would be opened for lease while the moratorium on the remaining 98% of the coast would be preserved. Two-thirds of the tracts are off Humboldt Bay in Northern California.

Areas Proposed

The remaining areas proposed for lease include 126 square miles off Santa Maria; 198 square miles of the outer Santa Monica Bay; 36 square miles off Long Beach; 54 square miles off Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, and 45 square miles off Oceanside.

Packard, a Carlsbad dentist whose district extends to the Dana Point area in southern Orange County, emphasized that the five newly proposed tracts do not extend into Orange County waters. He said the plan has the approval of naval officials and is being looked on favorably by Hodel.

But finding six more tracts off Camp Pendleton to substitute for the tracts off Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, where residents have organized in opposition, may be difficult.

‘We Worked Hard’

“We worked hard to locate those five tracts, and whether we could find six more that would fit into that same category and not impinge on military operations, and also would be acceptable to Interior, I don’t know,” Packard said.

“But if I could help solve the problem, I am willing to help Bob Badham.”