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By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 13, 1998; Page A08

MONTEREY, Calif., June 12—While seals frolicked in the waters nearby, President Clinton today said he was extending by 10 years the ban on offshore oil drilling for much of the coastal United States.

Splitting the difference between environmentalists who sought a permanent ban and oil companies that complained Clinton was ignoring their industry's recent strides against pollution, Clinton's executive order seeks to prevent drilling for oil and gas in most parts of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts until 2012.

"Even in the best of circumstances, is it really worth the risk?" Clinton asked.

Clinton and Vice President Gore, joined here by Hillary Rodham Clinton, were speaking at the National Ocean Conference, a gathering of government leaders, academic experts and others to discuss ideas for better stewardship of the seas.

Clinton also announced measures aimed at softening the impact of overfishing, including a ban on the sale or import of Atlantic swordfish weighing less than 33 pounds. He proposed spending $194 million over five years to implement the ban and other steps aimed at curbing overfishing, and $800 million over five years to improve U.S. port facilities and harbor channels. If approved by Congress, the port improvements would be funded by a fee on shippers.

It was the drilling announcement that had been most eagerly anticipated here, where protection of the Golden State's spectacular shoreline has become a potent political issue. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who had earlier appealed to Clinton to impose a permanent ban, and the state's top Republican, Gov. Pete Wilson, have endorsed the goal.

Kathleen McGinty, head of the Council on Environmental Quality, said Clinton "has charted the most prudent course.

"From our dialogue with the [energy] industry," McGinty said, "we have a very good sense at this point of what kind of technological capabilities that we have right now, or might hope to have in the next 10 years; what the global oil situation looks like in terms of supply and demand now and for roughly 10 years."

But the American Petroleum Institute, in a statement quoted by the Reuters news service, said the decision was "particularly bad policy at a time of record U.S. energy imports," and "ignores the near-perfect performance of the American petroleum industry in operating offshore in a safe and environmentally sensitive manner."

The ban is not in place everywhere; drilling will continue in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas and Louisiana. McGinty said the gulf "is less environmentally fragile" than areas where the ban applies. Drilling will be banned permanently in marine sanctuaries, such as Monterey Bay and the Florida Keys.

Clinton, on a weekend trip to the West Coast, also appealed for the Senate to ratify the stalled Law of the Sea Convention, which establishes international law for ocean activities, including fishing, commercial and military operations. If the Senate does not act by November, the administration warned, the United States may not be able to join other nations in setting new rules for seabed mining.

Before speaking at the conference sponsored by the Commerce Department and the Navy, Clinton and Gore scrambled over rocks as they toured a tidal pool. "You're not rooting for us to fall?" Clinton joked to onlookers. "I don't believe it."