With energy costs continuing to climb, politicians in Washington are again casting their gaze to the waters of the Mid-Atlantic, and the oil and natural gas reserves that geologists believe lie beneath. New talk of offshore exploration has the region's environmentalists on edge.

"It's definitely the wrong way to go," said Brad Heavner, state director of Environment Maryland. "You can't drill with zero impact."

The decision by President Bush to lift an executive order against exploring the Outer Continental Shelf is putting new pressure on Congress to end its own offshore ban. Republicans and some Democrats are backing legislation that would give coastal states the authority to allow drilling off their shores, in return for a share of the royalties the industry pays the federal government.