University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, June 27, 1990
Nation/World
7
New oil leases banned
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Bush yesterday barred new oil leasing off much of California, Florida, the Carolinas and Georgia until after the year 2000, and Oregon until after the year 2000.
"Further steps to protect the environment are needed," he said.
Bush also canceled planned government oil lease sales in an area stretching south from San Francisco to Monterey Bay and said he would move his headquarters to 2,200-square-mile proposed marine sanctuary within that region.
However, Bush said tracts in the Santa Maria Basin and Santa Barbara Channel of Southern California would be available for leasing considered appropriate beginning of 1986. Studies show the environment can be protected there.
Southern California is the only area involved in Bush's decision today where oil drilling is now going on.
"The combined effect of these decisions is that the coast of southwest Florida and more than 99 percent of the California coast will be off gas leasing until the development until after the year 2000." Bush said.
Lisa Speer, senior staff scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Bush's decision a major step in the right direction. But she said it falls short in several crucial respects.
Environmentalists want a permanent ban imposed on offshore drilling. Speer complained that Bush did not address some areas where lease sales were upcoming, including the Mid-Atlantic coast, North Carolina, New Jersey, Alaska's Bristol Bay, and northern Florida.
In the case of Florida, where the government already has sold 73 leases to oil firms in an area off the Florida Keys, Bush said he is directing Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan to begin a process that may lead to the buy-back and cancellation of existing leases.
Along the New England coast, Bush announced a delay that administration officials already had signaled. He said a sale of leases in the Georgia area east of Cape Cod, would be canceled until at least 2000.
Further, he said, "Any development after the year 2000 would be pursued only if it appears viable based on the guiding principles" of environmental protection, energy and significant potential for oil production.
"This will allow time for additional studies to determine the resource potential of the area and address the environmental and scientific concerns which have been raised." Bush said in his statement.
Georges Bank, an underwater plateau that is about 175 miles long and
lies 50 to 150 miles east of Cape Cod, is one of the world's richest fisheries. Congress has protected the region from oil drilling for the past several years by imposing moratoriums.
Earlier this year, representatives of Washington and Oregon, federal agencies and Indian tribes negotiated an agreement that would cancel a Northwestern lease sale planned for 1992 and call for about seven years of environmental studies.
The decision closely follows the recommendation of a task force Bush appointed to study the oil exploration question last year. It recommended that more studies be conducted in California and Florida before new oil-producing activity be allowed.
In California, Bush's long-awaited decision calls for canceling all planned government sales in Northern California, and in Southern California south of the Santa Barbara Channel, so new oceanographic and socioeconomic studies can be conducted. These areas could not be considered for new leases until after 2000.
Bush said he had received the report of the interagency Outer Continental Shelf Task Force on Leasing and Development off the coasts of Florida and California, and had accepted its recommendation that further steps to protect the environment are needed.
Leading Chinese dissident arrives in Britain to teach
LONDON — Fang Lizh, China's most prominent dissident, said yesterday that he would continue to work for progress in his homeland as he returned to an academic life in Britain.
The Associated Press
Fang and his wife, Li Shuixian, arrived in London late Monday after Chinese authorities allowed them to leave their refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China
The couple had been in the embassy since shortly after the June 4, 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, in which hundreds and perhaps thousands of people were killed.
"As citizens of China, we hope to do whatever we can in the future to help China's continuing progress and development." Fang said in a statement issued by the National Society in London. He did not meet with journalists.
Fang's statement said he and his wife were looking forward to a few days of quiet to rest and recuperate, and to have some medical tests.
The society, one of the country's oldest and most prestigious scientific organizations, invited the 54-year-old astrophysicist to Britain. Fang will be a member at Cambridge University's Institute of Astronomy.
Institute of Astronomy.
A Foreign Office official who met Fang and Li when they landed at Upper Heyford, a U.S. air base 60 miles west of London, said they were "tired but cheerful."
U. S. media reported that Fang recently suffered a mild heart attack but refused to be treated in a Chinese
"The past year has been difficult for us, but we have
received strong support from the international scientific community and friends everywhere," the statement said.
"My wife and I would also like to express our heartfelt appreciation to President Bush, Ambassador (James) Lilley, and the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing."
A British Foreign Office spokesman, who could not be identified under civil service rules, said Fang was allowed to leave China after a tripartite agreement among Britain, China and the United States.
The Foreign Office refused to give any details or elaborate what exceptions if any, look place where they are.
The U.S. Congress is debating President Bush's decision to extend China's most-favored-nation trade status, which gives China lower tariffs on goods sold in the United States.
Some members of Congress have said that China should lose the status because of its human rights violations, including the Fang case.
China's decision to allow the couple to leave eliminated a major obstacle to better relations with the West, which deteriorated badly after the violent suppression of pre-democracy protesters and their supporters.
Fang and Li have two sons, Fang Ke is a student at Wayne State University in Detroit and the other, Fang Zhe, a student at Beijing University.
we understand that our son in China will be soon able to study abroad, and we are naturally looking forward to a family reunion," Fang said in the statement.
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