FEDERAL AGENCY STUDIES NEW COASTAL OIL DRILLING; PROSPECT OF WELLS RENEWS OLD FEARS IN REGION.

Byline: Associated Press 

Never mind a presidential order or political rhetoric, plans are quietly under way by an obscure federal agency to allow new offshore oil drilling along California's coast for the first time in 14 years.

Despite a decidedly anti-drilling mood among coastal residents, the Minerals Management Service is working to let oil companies begin drilling on 39 undeveloped tracts off Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

While the Golden State has 1,000 miles of surf, sand and stunning panoramas, there are already 23 huge platforms dotting the horizon off Southern California.

Just the possibility of a resurgence in oil drilling has angered some residents. At best, it will be years before a new platform is built.

``They're ugly and they don't belong off this pristine shoreline,'' said Bill Daneen, a longtime resident of Nipomo, a coastal town in northern Santa Barbara County.

``If oil companies can't drill on land without making a mess, how can we expect them to do any better offshore?'' he asked.

It was a 1969 crude oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel that triggered the movement against offshore drilling after images were broadcast of oil-slickened birds and fish.

Then in 1989, experts discovered a leaking underground pipeline that spilled 400,000 gallons of gasoline, diesel fuel and crude oil onto the shores of Avila Beach, 75 miles north of Santa Barbara. Just last month, Unocal Corp. agreed to pay $18 million to clean up the mess by tearing down the town.

During the 1980s, former California Rep. Leon Panetta helped get drilling bans attached to federal appropriations bills. By 1995, the state had imposed a permanent ban on offshore drilling within three miles of the coastline.

Last month, amid much hoopla, President Clinton signed an order against the scenic backdrop of Monterey Bay extending a federal ban on oil drilling off most of the U.S. coastline until 2012.

But the measures have no effect on those undeveloped oil leases off Southern California. Sold by the U.S. government in 1984 to companies at the rate of $140,000 to $350 million, the leases still hold legal options to drill. Also not touched by the measures are the 23 existing oil platforms.

So environmentalists remain in a fighting mood, bracing to stop, or at least control, what they view as an unseemly alliance between the federal government and big oil companies to introduce drilling on the undeveloped oil fields.

``It's outrageous,'' said Geof Land, an environmentalist from San Luis Obispo. ``It doesn't make any sense. All different kinds of tourism dollars are threatened by offshore development. California needs a clean coastline. Developing off the coast undermines the economic base.''

Offshore oil drilling has long been a hot-button issue in California politics, and this year is no different: Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, has urged Clinton to make his moratorium permanent, while Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have sponsored measures in Congress that would permanently ban offshore oil drilling.

At least one company that owns several of the undeveloped tracts off Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County wants to submit a proposal for drilling.

``All along, we've wanted to do it,'' said Art Boehm, a spokesman for Nuevo Energy of Houston.

However, there are no immediate plans to start oil drilling again. The 20 or so oil and gas companies that hold the undeveloped leases, including Chevron, cannot drill until the Minerals Management Service, a branch of the Interior Department, finishes a $1.5 million feasibility study.

The study should be finished by the end of the year, after which public hearings will be held. It could take another five years before any new drilling starts, said economist Fred White, who is overseeing the project.

``There's no secret project in the works for drilling along the coast,'' said Jeff Wilson, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association. ``This is just 95 percent grandstanding and photo opportunities.

``All these politicians are stumbling all over themselves to make this a campaign issue when in reality, oil companies have been there, done that. They know the political will in California.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Map

PHOTO A federal agency is exploring the possibility of more oil platforms off the Southern California coast.

Len Wood/Santa Barbara News-Press

MAP: OFFSHORE OIL: The Minerals Management Service, a federal agency, is planning to allow new offshore oil drilling along California's coast for the first time in 14 years. A look at the proposed sites.