IN 1896, a Californian entrepreneur drilled the world's first offshore oil well from a jetty stretching out into the Pacific near Santa Barbara. Nowadays the waters off California and most other states are off-limits to oilmen, thanks to a series of laws and executive orders that bar the federal government from issuing new licences for offshore exploration anywhere but in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. That puts roughly 85% of America's territorial waters out of bounds. But as concern about America's dependence on imported oil grows, and the price of the petrol (gasoline) derived from it soars ever higher, Congress is beginning to reconsider the restrictions.
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