WASHINGTON — A Bush Administration task force on offshore drilling is seriously considering a proposal to subject oil platforms off the Southern California coast to pollution regulations set by local authorities, according to a task force document and sources close to the panel.
The extensive attention being given to the proposal, which primarily would affect new offshore oil platforms, provides another strong indication that the task force will urge the government to reaffirm its plans for further drilling off the Southern California coast.
A decision to tighten pollution-control regulations for such rigs could help minimize opposition to any offshore drilling recommended by the task force.
It also would signal a victory for the South Coast Air Quality Management District and other governmental units, which have sought to wrest control over offshore emissions from the less-restrictive Interior Department.
Short of Outright Moratorium
If issued in conjunction with an endorsement of new oil exploration, however, it would fall short of the outright moratorium advocated by anti-drilling forces.
"Making offshore rigs subject to local rules would simply indicate that they got a firm grasp on the obvious," said Leslie Gainer, a spokesman for the environmentalist American Oceans Campaign. "What they need to do is set aside areas for permanent protection (from) leasing."
A task force progress report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, makes no formal recommendations and simply describes the pollution-control plan as one of several options under consideration as ways to reduce the environmental consequences of any new drilling.
Report to President Bush
But Administration officials said the proposal is under serious consideration and indicated that it is likely to be adopted as part of the panel's recommendations in a final report to President Bush at the end of the year.
Because most existing offshore oil rigs in the Los Angeles area are situated in waters already subject to local control, the plan would be of great significance only if new drilling was to proceed in additional areas controlled by the federal government.
In that case, an AQMD official said Thursday, emissions from new drilling platforms off Southern California could spew more than 16 tons of smog-producing pollutants into the atmosphere each day by early in the next century unless the air quality board gains regulatory authority.
