Great Lakes Article:

WASHINGTON -- Drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would lessen America's dependence on Mideast supplies, Sen. George Voinovich says.

But ask the Cleveland Republican if natural gas drilling should be allowed in Lake Erie, right in Ohio's back yard, and he quickly changes his tune.

"Lake Erie is a recreational and environmental asset, and it deserves protection," said Voinovich's spokesman, Scott Milburn.

President Bush may have upset the Sierra Club by calling for energy exploration in still-pristine wilderness, but Ohio's tourism and environmental groups are praising members of his party for trying to keep the lake free of rigs.

Ohio oil and gas companies say all the fuss about drilling on Lake Erie is hype. Natural gas exploration is safe and Lake Erie has had no environmental disasters from previous drilling, said Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association in Granville.

Any ban on drilling is keeping Ohio residents from access to more affordable natural gas supplies just off shore, he said.

"It's become such an emotional issue that people do not want to evaluate the facts," Stewart said.

Ohio lawmakers, including Voinovich and Toledo Democrat Marcy Kaptur, pressed Congress in 2001 to approve a two-year moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the Great Lakes. That moratorium will expire in September.

In the coming week, Congress could pass the much-delayed 2003 federal spending bill, including an amendment tucked in from Voinovich and GOP Sen. Michael DeWine of Cedarville, to extend the federal ban for another two years.

Ohio's Republican Gov. Bob Taft said in early January that he would issue an executive order to ban natural gas exploration off Lake Erie's Ohio shore effective until his term expires in 2006. He had not signed the order as of Friday, but Andy Ware, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said his agency is preparing the paperwork and the governor intends to sign it soon.

Though Ohio has no laws that set up a process to allow drilling, several state lawmakers want a permanent ban.

"If a drilling company showed up at our door wanting to drill on Lake Erie, we'd have to say, 'There's no law for that,' " Ware said. "It's not as if somebody could start drilling tomorrow."

Michigan passed legislation last year to prohibit all petroleum and natural gas drilling in its portion of the Great Lakes. Pennsylvania has not formally banned drilling in Lake Erie, but none has taken place since the 1970s. New York prohibits exploration and development of oil under Lakes Erie and Ontario; it allows some limited gas drilling under Lake Erie and has considered a ban.

Canada does not ban energy exploration in the lake and has about 1,000 functioning natural gas rigs off Ontario's Erie shore, according to Natural Resources Canada officials.

The Ohio moratorium is necessary because the environmental and economic risks of drilling for natural gas far outweigh the benefits, Voinovich and Ohio environmental groups said.

Ohio consumes a trillion cubic feet of natural gas each year, but Lake Erie can produce only 20 billion square feet annually, Voinovich said. Drilling also is risky because toxic waste such as lead, mercury and chromium is stirred up from where it has settled at the bottom of the lake, said officials at Ohio Public Interest Research Group, an environmental and consumer activist organization based in Columbus and Cleveland Heights.

Natural gas exploration also could disrupt the state's more lucrative tourism and recreation and crowd out wildlife along the lakeshore, Ohio Public Interest Research Group officials said.

But Stewart said the ban is hurting the pocketbooks of Ohio households.

Residential natural gas prices in Ohio climbed to $10.32 cents per thousand cubic feet in September, according to the latest U.S. Department of Energy data. This is 24 cents above the national average and a 44 percent increase from the start of 2002.

Natural gas prices across the country are higher this winter for several reasons, including unusually cold weather, a possible war in Iraq, and political unrest in Venezuela. Natural gas prices in Ohio would be slightly lower if more supplies were available close by, Stewart said.

"It's putting the citizens of Ohio at an economic disadvantage," he said.