U.S. takes first step toward new offshore oil drilling

Officials with the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil and gas development in federal waters, said that starting today it would begin the process that could lead to leases at a potential site at least 50 miles off the coast of Virginia, an area that has not had offshore drilling.

Although the move involves only one coastal area, it represents the first turn of the crank in a much larger offshore-drilling campaign that rose to a fury this past summer amid a tumultuous election season and soaring gas prices -- and now stands to increase energy exploration in federal waters around the country, including off the coasts of California, Alaska and Florida.

"We've had some discussion, but now we're getting serious about it," said Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service. "This is actually an important step in our nation's energy security picture."

It could, however, be only a temporary step.

Democratic lawmakers and President-elect Barack Obama have said they would consider offshore drilling as a compromise in a comprehensive energy policy and as a way to wean the U.S. off foreign oil.

But whatever the new administration and Congress decide is likely to be more restrictive than current rules under the lapsed ban, which technically allow oil companies to drill as close as three miles offshore with federal approval.

"The issue of offshore drilling will be addressed by the next president and the next Congress," said Drew Hammill, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who recently supported letting states decide whether to permit energy exploration 50 miles to 100 miles off their coasts.

Since 1981, a congressional moratorium on new offshore drilling has prevented the Interior Department from establishing leases in virtually all coastal waters outside of the Western Gulf of Mexico and some areas of Alaska. The ban was enacted after a massive oil spill devastated the Santa Barbara coast in 1969.

Last month, however, the Democratic-controlled Congress allowed the moratorium to lapse amid pressure from the White House, Republican lawmakers and even members of the Democratic caucus who had come under attack for not doing more to bolster domestic energy supplies with gas prices topping $4 a gallon over the summer.