Congressmen Assail Hodel, Vow to Extend Drilling Ban : Charge He Reneged on Agreement

WASHINGTON —  Members of California’s congressional delegation today angrily accused Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel of breaking an agreement that would limit offshore oil drilling and vowed to extend a moratorium on all new exploration for oil and natural gas off the California coast.

Some members of the delegation held out the possibility of writing into law the tentative agreement they reached with Hodel in mid-July. They accused the Interior secretary of abandoning this agreement during a heated, two-hour private meeting today.

“The Administration’s credibility has suffered a very serious blow,” said Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo). “We had an agreement and the Department of the Interior is reneging on that agreement. We have no alternative but to go for a moratorium.”

‘Let’s Break a Deal’

Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) said, “We have a new show. It’s called ‘Let’s Break a Deal.’ ”

Hodel, meeting with reporters after the meeting, denied that he had backed out of the agreement.

“We are much closer together now,” he said. “We have the framework in the preliminary agreement to go forward in the negotiations.”

Under the preliminary agreement reached July 16 between Hodel and the California delegation, 150 tracts of nine square miles each would be offered for oil and gas exploration off the California coast in exchange for extending until the year 2000 a congressional moratorium on exploratory drilling of the state’s remaining 6,310 undeveloped offshore tracts.

Minor Changes Acceptable

Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), chief House negotiator, said the majority of the delegation today offered to make minor changes in the 150 tracts to get the deal through Congress with Administration support.

But, Panetta said, Hodel insisted on major changes. “Hodel made it very clear that he can’t support” the initial agreement, he said.

Before today’s meeting, Hodel had protested that the 150 tracts covered by the July 16 agreement represented only 5% to 10% of the state’s potential offshore petroleum resources. He said that was insufficient, and the oil industry agreed.

Hodel said today that when the preliminary agreement was announced, he was unaware of Interior Department findings that most of the 150 tracts contain only 50 million to 200 million barrels of oil or their equivalent in natural gas. The department said the best of the 150 tracts it has identified off the California coast would yield an estimated 300 million to 900 million barrels of oil.

No Agreement: Cranston

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) told reporters that “we do not have an agreement,” despite support by the state’s two senators and 70% of its 45-member House delegation.

“Presumably we will seek to extend the moratorium and-or put the agreement into law, with some modifications,” he said.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said he favors writing the July 16 agreement into law, with some changes to cover “sensitive areas in Southern California.”

Congress has imposed a moratorium annually since 1981 to forbid new exploratory offshore drilling along about three-fourths of the California coast out of fears of environmental damage.