WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary James Watt said today the government will hold a California offshore oil and gas lease sale next month as planned, despite objections from Gov. Edmund Brown and environmentalists.
Watt also announced an accelerated five-year offshore leasing plan he said would add at least six more sales -- or about one more per year -- to the current schedule as well as increase the acreage covered in each.
He said the California sale, to be held 30 days after it is announced in the federal register next week, will include 34 tracts in the Santa Maria Basin that Brown wanted removed from leasing on environmental grounds.
'It was my conclusion the national interest was best served if we allow exploratory drilling in the Santa Maria tracts,' he said.
But Watt, appearing at a joint news conference with Energy Secretary James Edwards, said four Northern California offshore basins excluded from the scheduled sale by former Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus will not be included.
'A decision is tentatively scheduled in late May or early June on the second part of the sale and whether the national interest is served by leasing in these areas,' he said.
The four environmentally sensitive areas deleted from the May sale at the request of California politicians are Eel River Basin, Point Arena Basin, Bodega Basin and Santa Cruz Basin.
Watt said the best estimate of the oil and gas potential of all five California basins was $42.4 billion but only exploratory drilling can really tell.
He said the new five-year plan responds to Congress' desire to develop domestic energy sources as a way to cut dependency on foreign oil.
The plan will involve environmental impact statements on larger potential leasing areas and concentration on analyzing the potential of only the areas to be leased.
'This is the beginning of a national inventory of our oil and gas reserves so we can be in charge of our own future and control our own energy destiny,' said Edwards.
Three Democratic congressmen from California immediately expressed outrage over Watt's announcement and said they think he already may have decided to go ahead with north coast sales.
Rep. Leon Panetta, whose district includes coastal areas extending from San Luis Obispo to Monterey, said Watt's decision appeared 'to scrap' a policy requiring that the value of offshore oil be weighed against the need to protect fisheries and the shoreline.
Rep. Tom Lantos was critical of what he called a 'phony argument' that the oil should be drilled for national security reasons. He said the oil, if not drilled now, will be there for tapping in the future.
'This is a blatant payoff to the oil companies,' Lantos said.
Rep. Don Edwards said all San Francisco Bay area congressmen oppose north coast drilling. And he accused Watt of lacking environmental sensitivity.
California's Republican Sen. S. I. Hayakawa said in a statement Watt's decision was 'a major and positive step towards increasing our domestic oil and gas supply.'
He also expressed opposition to drilling in the Point Arena, Bodega and Santa Cruz basins, but called for 'early completion' of a study of the environmental impact of drilling in the Eel River Basin.
