The renewed debate over lifting the ban on offshore drilling for oil prompted by President Bush and Sen. John McCain's call for action has raised a number of important issues for New Jersey.

The ban established by Congress in 1982, and supplemented by an executive order by the first President Bush, prohibits oil or natural gas leasing to private energy companies on the outer continental shelf from three to 200 miles offshore. New Jersey political leaders of both parties have supported it, as have most other coastal state officials.

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