Interior issues offshore drilling plan

WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department on Friday issued a detailed proposal for widespread oil and gas drilling off both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts in areas that have not had energy exploration for decades.

The proposal, issued in the Bush administration's final days, calls for oil and gas leases to be made available within two to six years "in areas of hydrocarbon potential" from New England to Florida and off the length of California.

Until recently these regions of the Outer Continental Shelf have been declared off limits to drilling by Congress and by presidential executive order.

It will be up to President-elect Barack Obama whether to proceed with Interior's revised five-year leasing plan that would cover the years 2010 to 2015. He could scale it back or scrap it altogether. Interior officials said they wanted to give the next administration maximum flexibility to expand offshore drilling.

Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Obama's choice as interior secretary, has indicated he likely will want to scale back the Bush administration's offshore drilling agenda.

"There are places in the Outer Continental Shelf that are appropriate for drilling. There may be other places that are off limits," Salazar said Thursday during his Senate confirmation hearing and before the revised plan was issued.

"We need to have a thoughtful process as we go forward," said Salazar.

Congressional Democrats also have indicated that while they have no intention to return to the broad drilling bans that covered 85% of the Outer Continental Shelf, some areas — especially off California and off the Northeast — are likely to again be protected from energy development.

The proposed drilling agenda issued by Interior's Minerals Management Service on Friday assumes no such action.

It schedules three lease sales, in 2012-2015, off California in the Point Arena Basin off the state's northern coast and in the Santa Maria, Santa Barbara/Ventura and Oceanside/Capistrano basins in the south. Access to oil and gas in an ecological preserve off Santa Barbara would be allowed, but only through directional drilling.