Hodel Keeps Right to Alter Offshore Pact

In a break with key congressmen, Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel on Tuesday maintained his right to make major changes in a compromise agreement on oil and gas development off the California coast.

“I certainly never said anything to them (the congressmen) about the number or type of modifications that I contemplated,” Hodel told reporters.

Hodel’s remarks were the latest in a series that have caused concern among members of the California congressional delegation with whom he reached the preliminary accord in July. The compromise sought to allow offshore development in 150 tracts while exempting large sections of the coast until the year 2000.

Last week, Hodel raised the possibility of changes in the location of the 150 tracts and later said he was reconsidering the moratorium on the exempt sections of coast.

On Tuesday, two leading congressmen who negotiated with Hodel emphasized that they had bargained in good faith and questioned whether the secretary was succumbing to pressure from the oil industry.

“I think the secretary needs to know he has an awful lot of credibility on the line with this issue,” said Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley). “This agreement was not casually negotiated.”

Panetta added that a major retreat by the Interior Department would amount to a “large fraud on the members of the California delegation.”

Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) said he still believed that Hodel was acting in good faith but said he was “surprised” by the secretary’s remarks and described Hodel as being under “massive pressure” from the oil industry.

“You don’t make an agreement contemplating major changes,” Levine said.

Hodel said on Tuesday that his view of the agreement is being “reshaped” in large part by the series of public meetings he has been holding in California to assess public reaction. The plan is strongly opposed by the oil industry and related businesses, who have contended that the most productive tracts were excluded from the agreement.

But, even as Hodel appeared to be emphasizing oil industry concerns, he announced that he was excluding two more environmentally sensitive areas from offshore development.

He said they are an underwater ridge known as the Cordell Bank, near the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, and an area off Monterey Bay.

He previously has announced that he would exclude Big Sur, the Farallon Islands, San Francisco Bay and Point Reyes. Hodel said his announcement was clearly intended to satisfy environmentalists.

Still, most attention was focused Tuesday on Hodel’s continuing reservations about the preliminary accord.

Following an address before the California Chamber of Commerce, Hodel criticized an Op Ed Page article in The Times on Tuesday written by Levine, Panetta, and Rep. Bill Lowery of San Diego. In the article, the congressmen contended that only minor revisions in the preliminary agreement were contemplated.

Holding a copy of the article, Hodel said, “My point is, I entered this process to hear what people had to say about the preliminary agreement. I did not have a preconceived notion about the magnitude of changes that might have to accommodate the public response.”

He argued also with the congressmen’s contention that 78% of the 150 tracts had “high interest” for the oil industry.

“The 150 tracts were not selected on the basis of their resource potential, but merely reflected the political reality of what it would take to achieve some relaxation of the blanket moratorium,” Hodel said.

Hodel said that only 59 of 150 tracts are most promising. That means, he said, the preliminary agreement would allow development on only 8% of the most promising areas included in the moratorium.

Both Hodel and Levine said Tuesday that if negotiations fail to produce a final agreement by Sept. 30, Congress would attempt to continue its 4-year-old drilling moratorium, which expires on that date, the end of the current budget year.