President Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling, saying the nation's untapped reserves -- including an estimated 1 billion barrels off North County -- are needed to ease soaring gas prices.

"Families across the country are looking to Washington for a response," Bush said.

The announcement prompted a mixed and pointed response from local and state elected officials.

Two North County congressional representatives said they supported offshore drilling, while mayors of two coastal cities, the California Coastal Commission and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismissed it as a risky, short-sighted solution to the current energy crisis that ignores more innovative alternatives.

"We are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil," Schwarzenegger said.

Bush does not need support from Congress to lift the moratorium, but can simply repeal the executive order first enacted by his father in 1990 and then extended to 2012 by President Clinton that prohibits the Interior Department from leasing federal offshore land to oil companies.

Bush's proposal, which also includes opening part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for exploration, would tap into an estimated reserve of about 118 billion barrels of oil, according to the American Petroleum Industry.

About 11 billion barrels may be off the West Coast within 21 basins, including the potentially oil-rich Oceanside-Capistrano basin between Dana Point and La Jolla. The local basin could yield 1 billion barrels of oil and 1.25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to figures from the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said Congress has been inactive on the energy crisis and he prefered the president lift the ban through executive order.

"The bottom line is, we're running out of options," Issa said Wednesday.

The first congressional moratorium against offshore drilling was passed in 1982 and prohibits oil and gas companies from leasing land in federal waters for 200 miles.

Issa noted that Cuba has the right to drill for oil closer to the United States than any American oil company.

Opponents to offshore drilling remember a 1969 spill off Santa Barbara, and Issa stressed that drilling would have to be done with great attention to safety.

"Do we need to have protection? Yes," he said. "Do we need to have standards? Yes."

Issa also said there is a greater likelihood of spills from ships now carrying oil into California harbors than from platforms that have been pumping oil since the moratorium against new leases was adopted.

While the governor has no authority over federal waters -- the state controls waters three miles off the coast -- Issa said he would work to accommodate Schwarzenegger's concerns about protecting the state's environment if drilling is ever allowed.

Another congressman, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, has supported revising the moratorium. In 2006, he favored a bill that would reduce the moratorium to within 50 miles offshore and allow states to extend the ban up to 100 miles.

Schwarzenegger, who said Wednesday he opposed lifting the moratorium, called California's coastline "an international treasure."

The governor said the ban was not to blame for soaring gas prices, adding that technological innovations and expanded fuel choices for consumers ultimately will lead the way to reduced fuel costs.

Locally, some officials and environmentalists said they opposed any change to the moratorium.

"It's probably not something I can support," said Encinitas Mayor Jerome Stocks. "I'm not a big fan of high gas prices, but I think the reality of simply increasing the crude oil supply won't do that much to affect prices because we don't have the refinery capacity."

Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis said the city has opposed drilling in the past.

"I doubt that even if we had an abundance of oil that it would reduce gas prices," he said. "I really have misgivings about the feds."

Scott Harrison, chairman of the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit environmental group, said drilling for more oil will not solve the nation's energy problems in the long run.

"It's a shot at trying to treat the symptom and not the problem," he said. "What's it going to do, anyway? If we see a change in prices, it'll be five or six years away."

Harrison said the real solution will be in finding alternative fuels and transportation.

But for now, the country runs on oil, and there still is plenty left to be tapped, said Joe Sperano, president of the Western States Petroleum Association.

"The volume is real and meaningful," he said about the untapped reserve. "The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge holds 19 billion barrels just by itself, and it has a pipeline already in place to bring it to market.

Because of the instability of the foreign market, Sperano said it makes sense for the United States to start using its own reserve. Tapping into the supply will make the market more stable and less likely to fluctuate because of overseas disasters or political issues, he said.

"The way to reduce the impact is to demonstrate as a country that we're now willing to explore our own reserves," he said.

California Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas said the panel has historically been opposed to offshore drilling.

"I think it's a nonstarter in California," he said. "It's been consistently and widely opposed for decades, and it's a bipartisan position."

Douglas said drilling for more oil is not the solution to the energy problem.

"I think the answer is not in opening our coast to the threats of environmental pollution and destruction and damage for a short period of production that would be 10 or 15 years off," he said. "This is not something that's going to help the current energy crisis we're facing, and any representation to the contrary is just being disingenuous. We need to focus on alternative energy, efficiency and conservation."

The commission has authority over only three miles of state water, but it does have some say in leasing rights, said Allison Dettmere, deputy director of the commission's Energy and Ocean Resources Division.

The Federal Coastal Zone Management Act gives the commission the authority to review any proposed leasing agreements and explorations off the coast.

The panel can make recommendations to the Interior Department, which grants the leases, and it can sue the federal government if the recommendations are rejected, she said.

If the commission objects to specific drilling projects, it also can appeal to the secretary of commerce and, if the appeal is lost, again can sue the federal government, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

Untapped potential U.S. crude oil resources

Offshore Pacific Coast: 11 billion barrels

Offshore Atlantic Coast: 4 billion barrels

Texas, Florida gulf: 45 billion barrels

Offshore Alaska: 27 billion barrels

Onshore Alaska: 19 billion barrels

Lower 48 states: 1 billion barrels

Source: American Petroleum Industry