SAN FRANCISCO — For all his green talk en route to the White House, President Barack Obama remains a cipher on one of the most critical environmental and economic issues facing California: whether to expand drilling for oil and gas off the coast for the first time in a generation.
In four crowded meetings from Atlantic City to Anchorage, the administration has elicited heated comment from all sides on the future of the outer continental shelf, wrapping up a two-week listening tour Thursday in eco-friendly San Francisco.
"How green is Obama? I would say on energy in general, extremely green and visionary and smart," said Warner Chabot, chief executive of the California League of Conservation Voters. "On the issue of offshore oil drilling, there's a big, giant question mark."
Nine months ago, then-President Bush lifted a long-standing White House ban on new oil and gas leases off the nation's coastlines. On Sept. 30, the congressional moratorium on offshore leasing expired.
In the waning months of Bush's tenure, his administration ordered a five-year plan for awarding offshore drilling leases, including opening up 130 million acres off the California coast.
Shortly after Obama took office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar extended the public comment period. The big question now is what the new administration will do.
"We're all waiting to see if he changes the plan," said Alison J. Dettmer, deputy director of energy for the California Coastal Commission. "We want him to change the plan. We all hope that he will -- and remove all the leases in California."
Salazar did little Thursday to fill in the blanks. At a news conference during the all-day hearing, the former Colorado senator said that oil and gas production "has to be something that is on the table for consideration."
"Does that mean we will rubber stamp what President Bush and his administration did with respect to the five-year plan?" he asked. "I expect that the answer to that is no. We will have a different plan, a new way forward that is a comprehensive energy plan."
Although environmental activists promised that Thursday's hearing at UC San Francisco's Mission Bay campus would be attended by a "giant oil rig, dolphin/jellyfish costumes, thousands of activists with signs, live music, surfboards, beach balls," the actual turnout was not nearly on that scale.
