Hodel Rejects Plea for Year’s Delay in Offshore Oil Process

Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel said Friday he had no choice but to turn down Gov. George Deukmejian’s public appeal for a one-year delay in taking the first steps that could lead to oil and gas exploration off the Northern California coast.

Declaring that the solicitation of oil company interest will come as early as Monday, Hodel said the nation’s energy security requires him to proceed with the search for new domestic oil reserves because production will not begin for at least 15 years, when the current oil glut could turn to an oil shortage.

Deukmejian, in a letter to Hodel on Thursday, said the secretary’s decision represented “a breach of good faith” and an “unwise attempt” to shortcut a “prudent” planning process.

‘A Real Disagreement’

He urged Hodel to delay the action until a proposed five-year plan that Hodel announced on Thursday takes effect next year.

“I respect what the governor says in his letter, but in this case we have a real disagreement,” Hodel said at a press conference at the Westin Bonaventure.

He said that if he followed the governor’s advice, the nation would be faced with an “on-again, off-again, stop-and-go” oil development process that would delay lease sales until 1989.

Earlier Friday, Hodel told The Times that the governor, in a private conversation, said the solicitation of interest from oil companies is illegal because it was not included in an already approved five-year plan. But Hodel said his attorneys have informed him that is not the case.

Hodel also responded to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who on Thursday charged that Hodel with preparing to sell California’s “precious” coastline at a time when oil prices are falling because of the worldwide glut.

Tomorrow’s Needs Cited

Hodel said the nation must plan now to meet tomorrow’s needs. “For the mayor to suggest that he doesn’t understand that ought to be astonishing to his constituents,” Hodel said.

He also pointedly reminded Bradley that the mayor used similar arguments to defend his controversial decision last year to permit Occidental Petroleum Co. to drill for oil in the Pacific Palisades. The Occidental plan has since been delayed by legal challenges.

The exchange between Hodel and the two California officials came a day after the secretary announced the proposed five-year plan that would regulate oil and gas drilling off U.S. coasts between 1987 and 1991.

Hodel excluded 11 areas from consideration that are either already protected by law, are environmentally sensitive or hold little industry interest. But at this point, Hodel said, all other areas off the California coast are potentially subject to oil and gas exploration.

Appeal of Condor Ruling

Meanwhile, in another matter, Hodel disclosed that he has decided to appeal a federal judge’s ruling earlier this week in Washington that prohibited the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from carrying out a plan to capture the five known remaining California condors and place them in protective custody at the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park.