Offshore Drilling Backers Smell Victory

For decades, drilling for oil and natural gas off of much of the U.S. coastline has been off limits. But this year, with Congress facing high energy prices and a fresh lobbying push from oil companies and their supporters, even drilling opponents acknowledge that they may lose their fight to keep bans in place.

A flurry of legislation from members of both parties would allow drilling for oil and natural gas in new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf -- land that lies under federal waters that surround the United States and typically stretch from three to 200 miles offshore.

One of the proposed laws, co-sponsored by Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), would extend current prohibitions but allow governors to ask the federal government to opt out of the ban and allow drilling for natural gas.

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last week, oil and gas industry officials asked Congress to further open the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling.

At the same time, the U.S. Minerals Management Service has released a draft plan calling for vast new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf be considered for oil and natural gas drilling. The plan calls for drilling in a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and some areas off of Virginia and Alaska. About 2 million acres in the gulf could be opened without any special congressional or presidential approval. The other areas would require such approval.

States, lawmakers and environmentalists have beaten back past drilling attempts on the Outer Continental Shelf, long prized by energy companies for its rich resources, which some in the industry say could satisfy commercial natural gas requirements for the next three decades. And several lawmakers -- including some in Florida, a longtime offshore-drilling opponent -- still object.

But this year, a confluence of events -- high energy prices, support from key lawmakers, a possible solution that would satisfy Florida and new technology the industry claims reduces the risk of spills -- may be the combination that opens the Outer Continental Shelf, those on both sides of the issue agree.

"This year," said Melinda Pierce, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, which has been pressing lawmakers to maintain drilling bans, "the threat is greater than ever."

Oil companies are optimistic, if cautious -- earlier this year, it seemed likely that a section of the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge in Alaska would be opened for drilling, only to see the Senate uphold a ban at the last minute.

"We think there's a chance that [Outer Continental Shelf drilling] may well get through this time," said Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group in Washington. "And we're going to work very hard on that."

Offshore drilling is allowed in large portions of the gulf, off the Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana costs . But it is banned in federal waters along the remainder of the U.S. coastline -- including most of Alaska. Bans were added incrementally, beginning with the areas off the California and Massachusetts coasts in the early 1980s.

Lawmakers were particularly worried about offshore oil spills, the most notorious of which occurred in 1969, when an oil platform blew out off of Santa Barbara, Calif. That accident spilled millions of gallons of crude, marring miles of beaches, killing wildlife and galvanizing opposition to offshore drilling.