From mountaintop mining to shale-plumbing to coastal drilling now. Though in its last days, the Bush administration is going full steam with its ‘energy’ mission, no matter what happens to the environment.

The federal government is taking steps that may open California's fabled coast to oil drilling in the next three years. Environmentalists are already haunted by a vision of dozens of platforms off the coasts, oil spills and air pollution.

The ban on coastal drilling, beginning in 1981, ended this year when Congress let the moratorium lapse. Rigs could go up in 2012.

The Interior Department says that coastal areas nationwide affected by the drilling ban contain 18 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the “yet-to-be-discovered fields.” The estimates are only conservative and are based on seismic surveys in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before the moratorium went into effect.

The agency's last estimate puts about 10 billion barrels in California, enough to supply the nation for 17 months.

"If you were allowed to go out and do new exploration, those numbers could go up or down. In most cases, you would expect them to go up," said Dave Smith, deputy communications officer of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which oversees energy development in federal waters.

California's treasured coast, with its migrating whales, millions of seabirds, sea otters, fish and crab feeding grounds, beaches and tidal waters, are at risk, environmentalists say.