Extension of a Ban on Offshore Drilling Along the Entire California Coast Urged : Environment: A bipartisan majority of the state’s congressional delegation wants the central coast included in the current moratorium.

WASHINGTON —  A bipartisan majority of California’s congressional delegation urged President Bush on Thursday to extend the permanent ban on oil drilling into federal waters along the state’s coastline, a step that would effectively end new drilling in the Pacific Ocean off California.

In a letter drafted by Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), 26 House members and Sens. Alan Cranston (D) and Pete Wilson (R) called on the President to go beyond the recommendations of a federal task force and permanently prohibit drilling along California’s outer continental shelf, which begins three miles offshore.

The proposal encompasses not only the shelf along the coasts of Northern and Southern California where Bush temporarily put development on hold last year, but also areas off the central coast, where drilling rights now are scheduled to be sold in March, 1991. Last month, the State Lands Commission banned new drilling in the first three miles offshore.

Bush has under consideration a massive report from his Outer Continental Shelf Task Force, including a series of options for development of the shelf off the Northern California and Southern California coasts and a third area off the coast of Florida.

The Florida lease sale is southwest of the Everglades in an area where environmentalists contend oil development would present a dire hazard to already-threatened coral reefs.

The Ronald Reagan Administration had planned to begin development of the three huge tracts. But the Bush Administration, heeding outcries from environmentalists, temporarily halted preparations for the lease sales, and the President ordered a task force to study the environmental impact and economic considerations.

The Central California coast, from Sonoma County south to Monterey County, was not included in the study, although several California congressmen and environmental groups urged Bush to add it to the task force’s agenda.

The California delegation’s letter urges Bush “to provide permanent protection for all sensitive areas along the coast” and specifically asks him to give the shelf off the central coast protection “commensurate with that provided for Northern and Southern California.”

Besides Cranston and Wilson, the letter was signed by 22 House Democrats, plus Republicans Bill Lowery and Duncan Hunter of San Diego, Ron Packard of Carlsbad and Tom Campbell of San Mateo.

According to Administration sources familiar with the task force, the report sent to the President earlier this month did not include a permanent prohibition on development.

Instead, it offered several scenarios ranging from proceeding with lease sales within a year to postponing them for another decade.

Pressure for long-term protection of the shelf increased late last year when experts from the National Academy of Sciences concluded that further research is needed before a decision is made on the future of the shelf.

Among other things, the scientists said currents off the southern coast are not adequately understood and suggested that there has been little preparation for dealing with an oil spill or a well blowout.

In their letter, the lawmakers argued that information is equally inadequate for the central coast.