Key California Congressmen OK Weakened Drilling Pact

Key California congressmen Tuesday dropped plans to press for a revival of a 4-year-old moratorium on oil drilling off the state’s coastline and agreed to a watered-down pact requiring only that Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel begin negotiations with lawmakers over a drilling scheme.

But the state’s two senators, Republican Pete Wilson and Democrat Alan Cranston, insisted that the fight is not over and announced plans to propose more than 100 amendments designed to protect the California coast from drilling and exploration. The amendments would be attached to an Interior Department spending bill scheduled for Senate debate as early as today.

Such a tactic by the senators would be intended to force the Republican-led chamber into renewing the moratorium for another year or risk a protracted debate at a time when lawmakers are rushing to clear their crowded calendar and get home for Christmas.

‘To Gain Time and Leverage’

“The aim is to achieve leverage and to take advantage of the time situation,” Wilson said. “We need the moratorium both to gain time and leverage with the secretary.”

The new House agreement, which for the first time will put non-Californians and drilling advocates on the congressional negotiating team, is likely to be added to an omnibus spending bill that the House is scheduled to take up this week. The House Rules Committee cleared the way for the compromise by agreeing to let sponsors bring it up as an amendment on the floor.

Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey) acknowledged that he and other opponents of offshore drilling agreed to the new arrangement only after it became clear that they could not muster the votes needed to reverse a key committee vote two weeks ago to end the drilling ban.

Environmental groups ridiculed the new proposal as meaningless, arguing that it would not force Hodel to negotiate seriously in devising a program to limit coastline oil exploration efforts.

The moratorium expired Sept. 30 after Hodel broke off a deal worked out with California congressmen last summer to limit exploration efforts to only 150 of the 6,460 potential oil-bearing tracts along the state’s coastline.

Under the new arrangement, Hodel would be required to re-enter negotiations with an 18-member panel of legislators and to report to Congress every 60 days on the progress of those talks.

The lawmakers would include Wilson and Cranston as well as four Democrats and three Republicans from the state’s delegation in the House, plus the ranking Democrats and Republicans from several House and Senate committees concerned with energy or environmental questions.

Some of the non-Californians who would be designated are strong advocates of vigorous offshore oil development.

Hodel, in a statement, called the development “encouraging” and said it will accelerate a resolution of the drilling controversy.

Hopeful of Consensus

“The absence of a moratorium should enhance chances for an agreement,” he predicted. “Without a moratorium, we are on a level playing field, and I am hopeful we can reach a consensus.”

Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), an advocate of increased offshore oil development, agreed that the proposal will enhance prospects for reaching an accord that would allow drilling but would set limits designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas.

“It (the agreement) takes into account those of us who have not been supportive of a moratorium and it takes into account that this oil is a national resource which belongs to every state--not just California,” Lungren said.

Panetta, who helped arrange the compromise, acknowledged that it was a “fallback position” but insisted that it was the best deal that drilling opponents could work out in the wake of a narrow House Appropriations Committee vote last month against a new moratorium.

Panetta’s Argument

A failed attempt to revive the moratorium on the floor “would really undermine our efforts to negotiate with the secretary,” Panetta argued.

While acknowledging that Hodel could still balk at reaching an accord that would limit drilling, Panetta insisted that the compromise will give drilling opponents ammunition to argue for a new moratorium if they could demonstrate that the secretary had been stalling.

Bob Hattoy, the Southern California director of the Sierra Club, dismissed the new arrangement as ineffective.

“Agreeing only to negotiate with the secretary is very, very weak protection (for the coastline), and probably no protection at all,” he argued.