Coast Cities to Press Bid for Drilling Ban : Energy: Officials, concerned that the Persian Gulf situation may lead to offshore production, want the President’s executive action turned into a law.

Worried that oil companies may use the threat of war in the Middle East to try to increase oil exploration off the California coast, Orange County coastal cities have agreed to step up lobbying efforts in Congress for a legally binding, 10-year moratorium on offshore drilling.

Although President Bush this summer ordered a 10-year ban on new offshore drilling leases, local officials said Wednesday that the moratorium must be made into law because the executive action is not legally binding and can be undone by Bush or a future President.

“We have got to do something that’s more than just a presidential press release, because we have read his lips before,” Laguna Beach Councilman Robert F. Gentry said in urging congressional action.

A spokesman for the oil industry, however, said there are no immediate plans to take advantage of the Middle East crisis by seeking a reversal of Bush’s 10-year ban.

Jeff Wilson, an official of the Western States Petroleum Assn., also said that it would take 10 to 15 years to develop new offshore drilling operations as a result of the confrontation in the Persian Gulf.

But he also said that there is a pressing need to increase domestic oil production.

“This instance simply underlines the dangers of being dependent on foreign energy sources,” Wilson said. “We would hope people could see that increasing our domestic petroleum sources would (keep the United States from becoming) involved in conflicts that we are seeing right now in the Middle East.”

But San Clemente Mayor Candace Haggard pointed out that the amount of oil believed to be available off the Orange County coast equals only three days of the total U.S. consumption--not enough to risk ruining the environment.

“We certainly realize that foreign oil dependence is a problem” Haggard said. “But we do not see drilling off our shores as the answer to that problem.”

The Laguna Beach City Council took the lead in the renewed lobbying effort when it voted this week to send Gentry and Mayor Lida Lenney to Washington.

“My gas (price) has gone up,” Gentry said. “It says to me the oil industry has reacted and reacted quickly. They (oil companies) are not stupid. They are going to see this action as an opportunity to try to open up the California coast.”

Laguna Beach is a member of the Orange County Coalition of Coastal Cities, which also includes Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, San Clemente and the county. The coalition has invited representatives from the business community and an inland city to testify before the House Appropriations Committee in support of the 10-year ban on new drilling leases.

Gentry said the action would be directed at the appropriations committee, which controls funding for the U.S. Interior Department, the federal agency that oversees offshore oil exploration.

“The executive order by Bush sets the policy for the executive branch of the government, and it’s strong and it’s good,” Newport Beach City Manager Robert Wynn said. “However, it is not binding in any way, shape or form.”

Federal and state officials said they had not seen any increased activity by oil companies to seek new offshore drilling permits.

“I think we are all going to have to wait and see what happens in Iraq and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before we see what happens,” said Susan Hansch, energy resources manager for the California Coastal Commission.

“It would definitely provide very important protection in new areas that never have been leased,” Hansch said about the proposed legislation. She added that most of the leases are in the Santa Barbara area, with others located near Huntington Beach.

An Interior Department official in the Los Angeles regional office said that 113 leases are still in effect off the California coast, compared to 135 a year ago.

Oil industry spokesman Wilson said 407 million barrels of oil are produced in California each year.