On Wednesday morning, President Bush proposed what might have seemed like a slam-dunk solution to America's growing pain at the pump: End the "legislative ban" on offshore oil drilling.

By mid-afternoon, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., had joined Bush. Capito issued a news release headlined "Congress must lift drilling ban."

But by the Bush administration's own figures, offshore drilling accounts for 27 percent of domestic oil production. And the vast majority of offshore U.S. reserves are already open to leasing by the industry, government data shows.

As Democratic chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Nick J. Rahall is in the thick of the congressional debate over energy policy. Over the last few weeks, Rahall has argued vigorously that the country should not try to drill its way toward cheaper gas. Opening up more public lands - or offshore oil reserves - is not the answer to $4-a-gallon gasoline, Rahall says.

"We have found that the oil industry is sitting on 68 million acres of federal oil and gas leases, the size of Colorado," Rahall said Wednesday. "They are stockpiling them. Opening up even more areas only gives them an opportunity to speculate even further.

"It is like your children trying to eat their dessert before the main course," Rahall added. "The oil industry needs to drill what they have now, drill in those areas available to them, and then we will talk about giving them dessert."

This week's edition of the Washington gas prices debate focused on oil production from the outer continental shelf, or OCS.

The OCS is the portion of the submerged seabed where minerals are subject to federal jurisdiction. This area generally extends from 3 to 200 miles offshore and covers about 1.76 billion acres.

A 1953 law established federal jurisdiction over the mineral reserves there, and subsequent laws have encouraged development of those reserves, but also restricted drilling in various ways.

In January 1969, a blowout at a Union Oil platform five miles offshore of Santa Barbara, Calif., sent 3 million gallons of crude into the channel and onto the beaches. The incident prompted a citizen movement against offshore drilling, and led to a congressional moratorium affecting certain areas starting in 1982.

Lawmakers added more areas to the moratorium piece by piece. Those restrictions are renewed yearly as part of the government budget process, with language prohibiting the Interior Department from issuing leases. Also, in 1990 then-President George H.W. Bush issued a presidential order for a broad moratorium that remains in place today.

On Wednesday morning, President Bush proposed what might have seemed like a slam-dunk solution to America's growing pain at the pump: End the "legislative ban" on offshore oil drilling.

By mid-afternoon, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., had joined Bush. Capito issued a news release headlined "Congress must lift drilling ban."

But by the Bush administration's own figures, offshore drilling accounts for 27 percent of domestic oil production. And the vast majority of offshore U.S. reserves are already open to leasing by the industry, government data shows.

As Democratic chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Nick J. Rahall is in the thick of the congressional debate over energy policy. Over the last few weeks, Rahall has argued vigorously that the country should not try to drill its way toward cheaper gas. Opening up more public lands - or offshore oil reserves - is not the answer to $4-a-gallon gasoline, Rahall says.

"We have found that the oil industry is sitting on 68 million acres of federal oil and gas leases, the size of Colorado," Rahall said Wednesday. "They are stockpiling them. Opening up even more areas only gives them an opportunity to speculate even further.

"It is like your children trying to eat their dessert before the main course," Rahall added. "The oil industry needs to drill what they have now, drill in those areas available to them, and then we will talk about giving them dessert."

This week's edition of the Washington gas prices debate focused on oil production from the outer continental shelf, or OCS.

The OCS is the portion of the submerged seabed where minerals are subject to federal jurisdiction. This area generally extends from 3 to 200 miles offshore and covers about 1.76 billion acres.

A 1953 law established federal jurisdiction over the mineral reserves there, and subsequent laws have encouraged development of those reserves, but also restricted drilling in various ways.

In January 1969, a blowout at a Union Oil platform five miles offshore of Santa Barbara, Calif., sent 3 million gallons of crude into the channel and onto the beaches. The incident prompted a citizen movement against offshore drilling, and led to a congressional moratorium affecting certain areas starting in 1982.

Lawmakers added more areas to the moratorium piece by piece. Those restrictions are renewed yearly as part of the government budget process, with language prohibiting the Interior Department from issuing leases. Also, in 1990 then-President George H.W. Bush issued a presidential order for a broad moratorium that remains in place today.

Currently, certain portions of the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska are open to leasing and drilling. Other areas are off-limits.

About a third of the total area of the OCS is off-limits to drilling. But the area off-limits accounts for only 21 percent of the total oil reserves in the OCS, according to a recent Interior Department report.

Bush said Wednesday he wants to remove his father's executive restriction, but dared Congress to act first to end the legislative limits.

Capito agreed.

"For years, Congress has blocked efforts to expand our nation's domestic production of energy offshore and in Alaska, and now we're paying the price at the pump," Capito said. "It's well past time to see that policy reversed."

Rahall favors legislation he sponsored last week to revoke leases for oil companies that are not diligently developing on those leases. Rahall is also co-sponsor of legislation by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., to charge fees to companies that hold oil leases but don't pursue drilling on them.

"At present, 81 percent of estimated oil and gas reserves on federal lands both onshore and offshore are available for development or will be pending the completion of land-use planning or environmental reviews," Rahall said.

"If the oil industry would drill those areas now, areas that are available for them to drill in now, today, the amount of oil produced would represent 14 years of current U.S. consumption, and 30 years of current domestic natural gas consumption."

Democrat Anne Barth, who is challenging Capito in the November general election, agreed with Rahall, and said she also opposes opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

"Rep. Rahall and his colleagues are asking why we should give ANWR to Big Oil now while they are already sitting on a stockpile of 10,000 permits they aren't drilling," Barth said Wednesday. "I think it's a question the American people should be asking, too."

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.