Californians Demand Lujan Quit Task Force on Offshore Drilling

In a sharp rebuff to Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr.’s strong advocacy of offshore oil drilling at the Western Governors’ Conference this week, California’s two senators and 17 of its Democratic House members demanded Friday that Lujan resign as chairman of a White House task force studying the issue.

Beating the lawmakers to the punch, however, Lujan issued a statement in advance declaring that he would remain in the post and asserting that he has no preconceptions about whether oil and gas leasing should be resumed off the California and Florida coasts.

He also challenged the Democrats’ suggestion that he does not believe offshore drilling poses environmental risks.

Barrage of Criticism

Even so, the barrage of criticism from Capitol Hill could undermine the impact of the task force’s recommendations on offshore drilling to President Bush next January. The panel is considering where offshore drilling may proceed without damage to the environment.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), a candidate for governor in 1990, joined in the call for Lujan to step down as chairman of the Administration task force.

“The clear fact is that you have prejudged the critical issues associated with OCS (outer continental shelf) development,” Wilson wrote Lujan in response to the Cabinet officer’s remarks Tuesday to Western governors meeting in Long Beach.

His letter sounded the same theme as a telegram sent to Lujan by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and 17 of the 26 Democrats in the California House delegation.

”. . . We ask you to step aside as chairman of the task force in order to protect the panel’s objectivity and credibility in the eyes of the public and Congress,” the telegram said.

2 Republicans Critical

Two Republican members of the House from California, Ron Packard of Carlsbad and Bill Lowery of San Diego, also criticized Lujan’s speech but stopped short of calling for his resignation from the task force.

“I find it especially galling to learn that the secretary of Interior has stated publicly that he believes ‘the answer to our current energy crisis lies just several miles off our shores,’ ” Packard said. It “sounds to me like the Administration has made up its own mind before it even completes its own study--sounds like a foregone conclusion.”

Packard also suggested that William K. Reilly, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, should take a more vigorous position against offshore drilling in light of Lujan’s advocacy. Reilly also is a member of the task force studying the issue.

“Rather than call for resignations, I think having a frank, open discussion is a more positive and constructive step,” Packard added.

Lujan’s View

In his statement issued late Thursday, Lujan said that the task force has not yet received reports on offshore drilling from the National Academy of Science and has not even started its deliberations.

“From the outset of my tenure,” Lujan said, “I have stressed the fact that oil and gas leasing should occur only after careful consideration of environmental risks and other potential costs. There are places where leasing should be excluded because of environmental and other factors. . . .”

His mandate, he said, “is to operate an offshore leasing program that both protects the environment and develops energy to help meet the nation’s economic, energy and security needs.”

The President, who had delayed sales of two oil-gas leases off the California coast, named the task force to provide a fresh look at the controversy between the oil industry and environmentalists.

‘Tragic Tradition’

Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Monterey), however, said that Lujan’s Long Beach remarks were in the “tragic tradition” of his Reagan Administration predecessors, James Watt and Donald Hodel, who avidly supported offshore drilling.

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), chairman of the House Interior subcommittee that has jurisdiction over offshore drilling, said that the panel would consider permanent legislation to exclude environmentally sensitive areas from oil exploration.

Lujan, he said, blindly supports oil interests as he did when he was a New Mexico congressman on the Interior Committee. “He’s at it again--hellbent for drilling at the expense of the environment and at the expense of the California economy,” Miller said.

The congressional criticism of Lujan comes in the wake of House approval of a comprehensive moratorium on offshore drilling and preleasing activities. The moratorium would be in effect until October, 1990, assuming the Senate approves it. Since the ban is included in an appropriations bill for the Interior Department, it does not appear likely that President Bush will veto the legislation.