Extension of Ban on Offshore Oil Leases Is Sent to President

A bill to extend for 45 days a moratorium on offshore oil leasing in California was sent to President Reagan Wednesday.

The measure, which passed the Senate on a voice vote, would retain until Nov. 15 a ban due to expire Tuesday on the leasing of 6,460 offshore tracts.

The House approved the moratorium extension earlier this month after Interior Secretary Donald P.Hodel changed his mind and rejected a preliminary agreement with members of the California congressional delegation to allow leasing on a select 150 tracts and retain the moratorium on the remaining 6,310.

Stopgap Resolution

The offshore moratorium was part of a stopgap resolution authorizing continued spending by federal departments and agencies past the expiration Tuesday of the current fiscal year.

The so-called continuing resolution provides money for the government through Nov. 14 and allows Congress more time to finish work on money bills for the new fiscal year. The President is expected to sign it.

The resolution is needed because Congress has completed action on none of the 13 annual appropriations bills that provide money for the government’s operations and programs.

Generally, the stopgap measure would hold spending at current levels.

The offshore leasing moratorium has been imposed annually since 1981, but was left out of the Department of Interior appropriations bill this year because the California delegation had reached agreement with Hodel on a leasing plan.

Bill Takes Precedence

By the time the deal was scuttled, it was too late to get the one-year moratorium back into the Interior bill.

The fiscal 1986 appropriations bill takes precedence over the stopgap legislation, and if it passes the Senate before Nov. 15, the 45-day moratorium extension will be eliminated.

Meanwhile, California lawmakers who supported the earlier agreement with Hodel introduced bills to enact it by legislation, with some minor changes. Several tracts off the coasts of Orange County would be exchanged for tracts in areas considered less sensitive to obstructed views or pollution associated with oil production.

A bipartisan committee was established to negotiate with the Interior Department in an effort to reach agreement on tracts to be offered for leasing.

Hodel said he rejected the 150 tracts after learning from the oil industry that they contained no oil and were considered undesirable.