The congressional ban on new offshore drilling was first approved in 1981, in an Interior Department appropriations bill, and has been renewed annually since then.
On Monday, two key Democratic senators -- West Virginia's Robert C. Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and California's Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Interior appropriations subcommittee -- pledged to fight any effort to relax the ban.
Congressional Republicans have pushed Democrats to support expanded domestic oil production, and they plan a new effort next week to allow offshore drilling.
Jeff Eshelman of the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America, a trade group for independent oil and gas producers, said Bush's statement placed "the pressure on Congress to act before the elections."
"It could be one of the most monumental votes faced by candidates running for office," he said.
In a sign of the changing mood, Rep. John Campbell (R-Irvine), who voted in 2006 against relaxing the moratorium, said in a recent interview, "I am becoming more flexible on the issue, which is clearly a function of the crisis in which we find ourselves."
Gas prices are "all anybody wants to talk about," he said.
"What I hear all the time is . . . 'I'm tired of sending all this money over to those people who hate us,' " he said. "And now it's a ridiculous amount of money we're sending to those people who hate us, and we need to stop that."
Jack N. Gerard, who this fall will become president of the industry's American Petroleum Institute, cheered Bush's action.
"Clearly, the ground is shifting on energy policy," said Gerard, currently the head of the American Chemistry Council.
To Lisa Speer, director of the water and oceans program for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, Bush's action removes "one layer of protection" for the coasts.
The battle to preserve the drilling ban has become tougher, she said. "It's a reflection of the pressure that politicians are feeling on gas prices. Everybody has to be very vigilant over the next few months until Congress goes out."
Dennis T. Kelso, executive vice president of the Ocean Conservancy, said: "While renewed offshore drilling will do little in the long or short term to help relieve a serious energy crisis, it does guarantee further ongoing destruction of our ocean resources."
Those who want to let states decide whether to permit offshore exploration say that technological advances have made drilling safer.
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richard.simon@latimes.com
james.gerstenzang@ latimes.com
