SACRAMENTO — Gov. Pete Wilson, in direct opposition to the Bush Administration, said Tuesday that offshore oil drilling should not be permitted in 176 tracts off the coast of Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

In his first policy statement on offshore oil drilling since becoming governor, Wilson called on the Interior Department to prevent oil drilling in some tracts already leased to oil companies and to halt a proposed sale of 87 new leases.

The Republican governor, detailing his objections in a letter to Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan, said the outer continental shelf from Oxnard to Morro Bay includes areas of "extreme environmental sensitivity" where drilling should not be allowed.

Wilson has long opposed offshore oil drilling. But as governor, his stand marks a sharp departure from the policies of his predecessor, Gov. George Deukmejian, who favored offshore drilling in many areas.

Instead of increasing offshore oil production, Wilson said, California and the nation should reduce the use of oil and find different sources of energy.

"California is continuing and expanding its conservation and alternative energy programs," Wilson said in the letter to Lujan. "The net contribution of our existing transportation policies will be to reduce oil demand by a greater amount than can be supplied by the California OCS (outer continental shelf)."

The governor's statement came in response to the Interior Department's announcement in February that it would lease 87 new tracts, totaling about 500,000 acres, off Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Last year, President Bush declared a moratorium on drilling off the coast of California until after the year 2,000, but the ban did not include the area from Oxnard to Morro Bay, where oil drilling has gone on for decades.

In his letter, Wilson urged the Bush Administration to consider a broader prohibition on new drilling off the California coast. However, the governor said if the federal government insists on allowing drilling, it should first address the effect of oil production on the coastal and marine environment, including the degradation of air quality, water quality and commercial fishing.

The 87 tracts that Lujan has proposed leasing to oil companies are near areas where offshore oil wells already are operating. For the most part, they are farther out to sea than existing wells, but some are proposed for waters just over three miles from the coast near Ventura, Carpinteria, Pt. Conception and the San Luis Obispo area.