WASHINGTON – Maine’s congressional delegation is resisting efforts by the energy industry and its allies in Congress to lift a moratorium on drilling for natural gas and oil on the Outer Continental Shelf. While there are no current proposals to open up drilling off the coast of Maine, lifting the moratorium would enable energy companies to begin drilling if they so chose.

Congress in 1982 placed a moratorium on most offshore drilling, except for the Gulf of Mexico and waters off Alaska and has renewed the moratorium every year.

According to reports by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service, drilling has taken place in the past. In the late 1970s and early 1980s oil companies opened several rigs 80 to 140 miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Mass. These wells were abandoned because they were not commercially viable and the moratorium went into effect. But natural gas wells are operating in the Canadian waters of Georges Bank, and that could spark interest on the American side.

Lisa Flavin, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, an energy lobbying group, said the ultimate goal is to get more energy to consumers. She said that lifting the moratoria on drilling along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts would help deal with energy demands, which are expected to rise in the next two decades. By 2025, the demand for oil will rise by 39 percent and for natural gas by 34 percent, Flavin said.

The institute estimates there are 3.8 billion barrels of oil in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf, which stretches from the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia to the tip of Florida, and about 37 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the same region. This is a fraction of the resources in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.

Matt Prindiville, the federal policy advocate for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said that opening up drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf would do little to ease energy demands. The council favors developing alternative energy sources, making automobiles more efficient and making the drilling moratoria permanent.

Prindiville also said that having rigs off the coast of Maine could hurt fishing. “Oil drilling is a messy business,” he said. “And the potential for spills to wreak havoc to fisheries and our coasts is certainly there.”

The two Maine U.S. House members have signed a letter urging the House Appropriations Committee to maintain the moratorium. So far about 75 Democrats and 25 Republicans have signed the letter and more are expected to, according to a spokesman for Democratic 1st District Rep. Tom Allen. A version of the letter circulates every year.

“Mining and oil drilling are profoundly inappropriate for the Gulf of Maine,” Allen said in a statement. “Our tourism and fishing industries, so important to Maine’s economy, are just too vital to put at risk. I will continue to fight to protect Maine’s offshore areas from dangerous and inappropriate activities.”

Maine’s other representative, 2nd District Democrat Michael Michaud, said in a statement that last year many of his fellow members of Congress had abandoned the commitment to a moratorium for drilling.

“As a 29-year mill worker, I understand that there is no question that we have to do everything that we can to lower gas prices for Maine families, but turning the Gulf of Maine into an oil and gas field is not the way to go,” Michaud said.

Both of Maine’s Republican senators agree with the Democratic representatives on this issue. In a statement, Sen. Olympia Snowe said she would be working with other senators to help protect the Atlantic seaboard’s environment.

“Many residents of coastal states such as Maine depend on the sea and all its natural resources for their very livelihoods,” she said. “Given that we are not certain that oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf can be done in an environmentally friendly way, now is certainly not the time to lift the moratorium.”

Sen. Susan Collins has been fighting efforts to open up the Outer Continental Shelf for years as well.

“Drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf presents a threat to the environment and could harm the livelihoods of many residents in Maine and other states,” Collins said in a statement. “For this reason, I remain committed to making certain that the moratorium remains in place to preserve our natural resources for future generations.”