Veto of Drilling Ban Is Assailed

SACRAMENTO — Democrats in the Legislature and Congress denounced Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday for his veto of a bill that would have banned oil and gas drilling off the coast of Northern California.

The bill, by Assemblyman Dan Hauser (D-Arcata), would have banned drilling for oil and gas within 3 miles of the shore along a 175-mile stretch of the Mendocino and Humboldt County coastlines.

In his veto message on Tuesday, Deukmejian said the state “cannot afford . . . to simply lock away our vast resources in a blanket moratorium.” He said the bill would make California “more vulnerable to future oil embargoes.”

State Senate Democratic floor leader Barry Keene of Benicia asserted Wednesday that Vice President George Bush “paved the way” for the Deukmejian veto by his “flip-flops” on the coastal drilling issue.

Keene said that on a recent visit to California, Bush trumpeted his environmental views, including his concern about oil drilling in sensitive coastal waters. But in a Texas speech last Saturday, Bush said flatly that Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis “opposes offshore drilling and I support it.”

“If the governor was worried that vetoing the Legislature’s offshore drilling ban would damage Bush, the vice president’s Texas speech got him off the hook,” Keene said.