Fighting offshore drilling

Home to the country's first offshore oil well, California's coastal waters have been off-limits to new drilling for a quarter century.AP in the Daily News.

The congressional ban that halted development is set to expire next week, but chances are remote that the 10 billion barrels of oil estimated to lie under the continental shelf will ever be tapped.

Steadfast opposition within the state, fueled in part by memories of a catastrophic 1969 oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast, will make it extremely difficult for oil companies to win the necessary approvals and prevail in the lawsuits that would be sure to follow.