STAUNTON As debates about climate change and health care engulf America, we cannot overlook a recent anniversary marking one lost year and counting. When Congress let expire the moratoria on oil and natural gas exploration in coastal waters, the economic possibilities of new jobs, trillions of revenue dollars, and bolstered energy security were finally within national reach. But thanks to governmental slow-pedaling, America now greets the anniversary of this major policy change with nothing but outturned pockets and continued delay.

Last September, the United States Congress chose to support American jobs and American energy by allowing the ban on offshore drilling to expire. For the first time in more than 25 years, drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) became legal, offering America the opportunity for more energy, more security, and more jobs.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling unveiled twin energy plans yesterday that call for drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia. McDonnell, at a stop in Norfolk, and Bolling, across the state in Roanoke, said Virginia must take advantage of traditional sources of energy—coal and nuclear power as well as oil and gas—while promoting alternative-energy sources.

A large majority of Virginians think global warming is real, but most aren’t doing much about it, a statewide poll shows. In the poll conducted by Christopher Newport University’s Center for Public Policy and the Virginia Environmental Endowment, 76 percent said global warming is happening. Sixty percent said they have made minor changes to their living and shopping habits, while 29.6 percent said they have made major changes.

Offshore drilling for oil and gas could bring billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to Virginia, and help secure the nation’s energy future, speakers at an industry-sponsored forum said yesterday.

Virginia and the federal government need to get behind offshore drilling to bring money and jobs to the state, an energy company executive says. “We have the [energy] resources,“ said the executive, J. Larry Nichols.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was on Capitol Hill yesterday to take part in a one-day symposium on climate change, along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, senators, fellow governors, business leaders and academics. “We know that the issues around global warming and climate change reach across party lines and across national boundaries, across state borders and communities,“ Kaine said in a statement.

Scientists are beginning to assess what they know—and what they don’t—about the environmental consequences of drilling for gas and oil in a triangular section of the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia’s coast. What they learn could open more Southern coastal waters to drilling. The government began a two-day workshop yesterday for researchers and scientists to discuss drilling’s impact on sea life and commercial and recreational fishing, along with other environmental and economic issues. The proposed drilling would occur 50 miles from shore in an area believed to contain 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Offshore drilling could provide much-needed energy or create huge environmental problems, panelists at a Richmond Times-Dispatch Public Square said last night. The debate at the newspaper’s downtown offices drew about 40 people, including the four panelists—two in support of drilling for oil or natural gas and two against. High gasoline prices and concerns over oil imports have heightened interest in offshore oil and gas. Congress and President Bush recently set aside longstanding bans on new drilling.