Editorial: Vulnerable shores

President Obama's decision to expand offshore oil and gas exploration poses an unnecessary threat to the beaches and economies of New Jersey and Delaware.

The president announced he'll allow more study and new drilling from Delaware to Florida, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and in some waters off Alaska. Leases in the Atlantic Ocean would begin off the coast of Virginia.

Obama isn't really drilling for oil - not now, anyway. He's drilling for votes for his comprehensive energy plan, wooing senators from states where new oil exploration is popular.

Hence, no drilling would be allowed along the shores of New England or on the Pacific coast, where senators oppose it. Gerrymandering oceans is a poor excuse for energy and environmental policies.

Congress first placed a moratorium on offshore drilling in 1981. In 1990, the first President Bush issued an executive order that mirrored the moratorium. In 1998, President Clinton extended that order.

But the resolve to protect the outer continental shelf from exploration began to crack in 2008 amid record gas prices. President George W. Bush and Congress lifted some drilling bans. Obama's plan is narrower than Bush's, which also would have opened up the waters of New England and the Pacific Ocean.

The United States is too dependent on foreign oil and should allow more exploration. The most promising known deposits are in the Gulf, where about 4,000 drilling platforms already operate.

The danger for New Jersey and Delaware is that any accident in the coastal waters of Virginia would likely end up as their problem, too. Oil spills can travel for hundreds of miles; New Jersey is only about 100 miles from areas of Virginia where drilling could occur. The northeast-flowing Gulf Stream would be a natural conveyor for any mishap.

Although spills are rare, when they do happen they're catastrophic. Befouling New Jersey's beaches would affect a tourist industry that employs an estimated 500,000 people. Beach towns generate as much as $50 billion annually. And the toll on the state's wildlife habitats would be incalculable.

Even a relatively minor incident can cost beach towns dearly. In 1988, Shore towns lost an estimated $1 billion - up to 40 percent of merchants' business - when medical waste and sewage spills drove away thousands of tourists. In August 2008, beaches in Avalon were closed for several days after a dentist illegally dumped medical waste from his boat.

The benefits of drilling in the Atlantic would be minimal, and years away. Opening up all the proposed areas to exploration would cut oil prices by an estimated 3 cents per gallon by 2030, affecting gasoline prices hardly at all.

The new production would make up for only a tiny portion of the oil and gas now imported to the United States. It could help replace the diminishing production of some existing wells in the Gulf.

Further studying is merited to pinpoint new fields and determine which of them is best suited for drilling. But New Jersey's Shore towns cannot afford to be in the path of this environmental gamble.