Federal land conservation programs are paid for by royalties collected by the Government from offshore leases for oil and gas drilling.

In 2002, Airtricity obtained an offshore lease for a 520 MW offshore wind farm.

Florida has since banned offshore drilling in state waters, and has a long-running legal dispute with Coastal over Coastal's efforts to drill the offshore lease.

From 1954, when the lease program began, to 1986, the Government received $84 billion for offshore leases.

Shell also owns offshore leases off the California coast and in two areas near Alaska.

By statute, the Minerals Management Service, the agency in the Interior Department that oversees offshore leases, has to seek comment from the affected governors.

Oil and gas company executives waded through flood waters last month in New Orleans to attend a Federal auction of offshore leases.

The blocks, which include 10 onshore and 13 offshore leases, will be sold at an auction on June 7.

JR invested $200,000,000 in offshore leases in Asia and remortgaged Southfork Ranch to do this.

Half of that stems from a blunder during the Clinton administration, when officials omitted the price-threshold restriction from all offshore leases signed in 1998 and 1999.