Offshore Drilling Plan Cuts Exploration : Proposal Sent to Congress; Expands Off-Limits Areas in Calif. : Offshore Drilling Plan Sent to Congress : Interior’s 5-Year Proposal Expands Off-Limits Areas in Calif.

The Interior Department sent a five-year offshore drilling plan to Congress today that rules out exploration in additional areas off Alaska and New England and slightly expands off-limits areas in waters off Southern California.

However, requests from Florida that the Florida Keys be exempt were turned down.

The plan drops a provision that would have permitted the secretary of the interior to accelerate any planned lease sale.

It makes only minor changes in the controversial provisions for California, adding new off-limits areas around some islands near shore.

It retains the slowed-down leasing schedule of previous drafts, cutting lease offerings in planning areas outside the Gulf of Mexico from one every two years to one every three years.

The department’s plan, two years in the drafting, takes effect in 60 days if Congress does not change it. Opponents of drilling off California are trying to ban the use of appropriations for that activity, which they have succeeded in doing in some past years.

Off Southern California, the department granted requests of Gov. George Deukmejian for additional six-mile buffer zones around the islands of San Clemente and Santa Catalina.

Areas Dropped From Sale

Also at the governor’s request, the department will drop the area around Begg Rock Island and San Nicholas Island near San Clemente Island from a lease sale planned in late 1989, but not from subsequent lease sales.

Because of discouraging prospects, the entire Gulf of Maine and areas around Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket off Massachusetts were dropped.

In the Atlantic north of Key Largo off Florida, a buffer zone of 15 to 30 nautical miles is incorporated seaward of the boundary between federal and state waters.

Except for a small slice off Jacksonsville, nothing will be offered off the east coast of Florida. Off Florida’s Gulf Coast, a 15- to 30-nautical mile buffer zone will extend from Naples to Apalachicola.

But the waters off the Keys will be offered, except for protective zones around Key Largo and Looe Key. Florida Gov. Bob Martinez had asked that all areas south of 26 degrees north latitude be ruled off limits.

The department is dropping these Alaska areas from further consideration: Aleutian Basin, Bowers Basin, Aleutian Arc and Kodiak. These extend from the Gulf of Alaska along the south of the Aleutian Peninsula and Aleutian Islands around to the north of the westernmost islands. In addition, the St. Matthew Hall area off central western Alaska is being put off limits.