© 2001 The Washington Post Company
June 22, 2001
By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES, June 22 -- A federal judge has given California significant new power to review, and possibly restrict, any future oil and gas exploration or drilling near its coast.

In a decision praised by environmental groups, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland has ruled that the state has the right to approve any federal attempts to open its coastal waters to new oil exploration and to subject any such activity to its own environmental laws.

The ruling will likely make it much more difficult for petroleum companies that have production leases in federal waters off the California coast to begin work if a federal ban on new drilling near the state's coast is lifted.

If environmental studies by the state conclude that exploration and drilling would be harmful to marine life and to the coast, the judge said, the leases would be terminated.

The judge's decision resolves a lawsuit that Gov. Gray Davis (D) and environmental groups filed nearly two years ago to stop the enactment of several dozen offshore oil leases along the scenic central coast of California. Davis strongly opposes offshore drilling.

He praised the judge's decision in a statement tonight, saying that it entitled California "to be the engine, not the caboose of the train" in resolving the issue of offshore drilling in coastal waters.

Drew Caputo, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco, said the decision could scuttle all the plans that oil companies have been advocating for the coast.

"It's really significant for us," he said.

Under federal and state law, new oil and gas drilling is prohibited off the California coast, but those steps were taken after nearly 36 leases had been signed decades ago for fields in coastal waters. They have never been opened to production, but the Clinton administration had allowed companies with leases to begin planning for exploration -- prompting the lawsuit from Davis and environmental groups.

No drilling to look for new deposits of oil and gas has been conducted since 1989, and the last new oil platform off the California coast was built in 1994.

But the issue has been gaining new attention since the Bush administration is advocating new domestic oil and gas production. In Washington Thursday, the House voted to delay a Bush administration effort to open part of the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida coastline to oil and gas exploration.

In California, political leaders in both parties have long expressed concern or outrage about opening the state's coast to new drilling or exploration. An oil spill in 1969 that significantly damaged the picturesque coast of Santa Barbara is often cited as an example of the hazards of offshore oil production. Error: Unable to read footer file.