COUNTYWIDE : House Panel Extends Ocean Drilling Ban

The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved a one-year continuation of the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling, including tracts off the coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Approval of the extension is expected in both houses of Congress and could be signed into law by President Bush in September, said Richard Charter, director of the California Local Government Coordination Program.

An extension would prevent new offshore drilling in coastal waters until at least Oct. 1, 1993, said Charter, whose group represents California coastal communities lobbying for restrictions on ocean oil leases.

The area covered by the ban includes the entire California coast, as well as waters off of Oregon, Washington and the Eastern Seaboard. Drilling on already-leased tracts near the Florida Keys and in Alaska’s Bristol Bay would also be prevented, Charter said.

Restrictions on drilling were first drafted in 1982 and have been extended each year since then by Congress, he said.

President Bush previously had given support to a proposal that would have banned new oil exploration off the coast of California through the year 2000 except in the Santa Barbara Channel and the Santa Maria Basin off San Luis Obispo County. This spring, the Bush Administration announced that it would extend protections to include those areas.

Congress is considering a comprehensive energy bill that would include long-term restrictions on offshore oil drilling, Charter said. Continuation of the year-by-year moratorium is seen as providing an extra measure of protection against drilling on new tracts, he said.

Charter noted that the current one-year moratorium expires Oct. 1. “This is a backup measure,” he said.