DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120507

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:   81 lines

OIL PLAN MOBILIZES ANTI-DRILLING GROUP CHEVRON'S CRITICS SAY OIL NOT NEEDED, AND DRILLING WOULD CAUSE POLLUTION.

Oil production has been prominent in Alaska for 30 years. North Carolina has yet to have a drop of oil extracted from what geologists believe are tremendous fossil fuel reserves off its coast.

In their first public meeting on the latest prospect of oil exploration in federal waters offshore, drilling opponents said Monday that state residents should look at the experience of Alaska and other states that are home to large-scale oil production.

Chevron USA's recent interest in drilling an exploratory well 45 miles from Cape Hatteras National Seashore revived the anti-drilling group LegaSea, nine years after a similar proposal by Mobil Oilbrought it together.

``It's nice we had a little break,'' LegaSea co-president Michael McOwen told a crowd of about 75. ``I hope everybody is energized because we have a lot of work to do.''

McOwen reminded the audience at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church meeting room that many residents in the first go-round in 1988 believed that Mobil could not be stopped. But he said the activist group learned that much can be done through education and by contacting state and federal representatives.

The first step, LegaSea members said, is to urge representatives to support the Outer Banks Protection Act of 1997, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C. which would ban offshore oil activity unless the governor approved.

LegaSea veterans may be armed now with more sophisticated lobbying skills, but oil companies have also learned from the earlier process, McOwen said. Mobil eventually sued the federal government in two separate actions - which are still unresolved - after it was blocked from drilling an exploratory well. The company says it no longer is interested in the North Carolina leases.

``Chevron has gone to school on us,'' McOwen said. ``They've gone to the University of Mobil.''

McOwen said Mobil made some public relations mistakes that left it open to criticism. But he said Chevron appears to be concentrating its initial efforts on lobbying lawmakers rather than the public.

Jim Sykes, executive director of Oilwatch Alaska, an activist group that monitors the oil industry, said in a telephone interview that public relations has become an important tool to oil companies in Alaska. Newspaper, radio and television ads are commonplace, he said.

Alaska was cited at the LegaSea meeting as an example of a state that has both benefited and suffered from oil production on the North Slope, which produces 1 1/2 million barrels a day. More than 80 percent of the state budget revenue comes from oil, and every state citizen gets an annual check of about $1,000 as a share of profits, Sykes said.

At the same time, Alaskans witnessed the devastation from the 1990 Exxon Valdez spill - a hazard that Outer Banks residents fear could ruin their fishery and coastline for generations.

North Carolina currently would have no right to a share of oil or lease revenue.

Because the United States has no strong fuel conservation measures or alternative energy plan, it makes no sense to industrialize an ``ocean wilderness'' like the Outer Banks, said Jan DeBlieu, LegaSea co-vice president.

Many coastal scientists believe the area in the Gulf Stream where Chevron wants to drill is one of the most diverse fishery and bird feeding areas in the world.

DeBlieu said that even if everything went as planned, offshore drilling could cause pollution with toxic drilling muds, radioactive water, platform washoff from detergents and solvents and exhaust from drilling machinery.

And she said the country has a trillion-barrel oil reserve and sells its Alaskan supply overseas.

Sykes said Alaska has sold oil and natural gas to Japan for the past several years.

And BP Oil brings Alaskan oil to England.

Oil companies are multinational corporations, said co-president Michael Egan.

And their presence across the nation and the world, he said, routinely results in boom and bust economies.

Chevron plans to present its proposal to the state by late 1998 or early 1999. The state will then have 90 days to respond.

``If we don't do anything, I can promise you Chevron is going to drill,'' McOwen said. KEYWORDS: OFFSHORE DRILLING OIL DRILLING OUTER BANKS

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