Bush May Ban Oil Drilling Off Everglades : Environment: The President will announce a new policy for sensitive areas. It could affect two large sites off the California coast.

President Bush suggested Friday that he has decided to ban for the foreseeable future oil drilling and exploration off the coast of Florida near the Everglades because of the environmental sensitivity of the area.

“I know enough about the Everglades and have been briefed enough on the environment of the Everglades to know that the ecological balance is highly sensitive,” he told the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He added that he plans to announce an offshore drilling policy “that prohibits drilling in certain highly sensitive areas.”

The President’s comments were the strongest hint of his plans concerning three huge areas of the Outer Continental Shelf where he suspended preparations for leasing in February, 1989.

In addition to the lease sale area southwest of the Everglades, the suspension covered two areas of the Outer Continental Shelf along two-thirds of the California coastline.

In January, an intergovernmental task force sent Bush a secret 200-page report detailing the environmental and economic impacts of drilling in the three areas and his options for offshore exploration and drilling. There still has been no indication of when he intends to announce his decision.

Bush has said that a total ban on offshore drilling is not being considered, but he and Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., who was chairman of the task force, have promised that drilling will not be permitted in areas that have special ecological sensitivity.

From the beginning of the task force review, knowledgeable sources have predicted that the area off the southern tip of Florida was the most likely of the three to be given long-term protection, because of the sensitivity of the Everglades as well as the already-threatened coral formations in the area.

As in California, Florida residents express strong sentiment against drilling offshore, and Lujan several weeks ago suggested that the state of Florida might wish to buy back 73 federal leases already granted off its shores. Discussions on the issue are now under way between state and federal officials.

Bush made no mention of two California lease sales on which he suspended activity pending his task force study. But Sen. Pete Wilson, whom the President supports in the California gubernatorial campaign, has sided with environmentalists in opposing drilling on federal property off the state’s coast.

Bush did reiterate his position that an outright ban on offshore drilling is not feasible.

“It has been proved in my part of the country that offshore drilling can be done compatibly with the environment,” he said.

“My position is there shouldn’t be a permanent ban on offshore drilling because then I would be compelled to ask the question: ‘Where do we get the energy to keep this country going and to keep the working man and woman at work and heat the homes?’ ”