B.C. would do well to heed the experience of its coastal neighbours.

For West Coast residents, there is a puzzling contradiction in the otherwise welcome greening of the recent public statements of Premier Gordon Campbell and his colleagues. That contradiction is the continued provincial government support for overturning the 35-year-old ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in B.C.'s coastal waters.

There is not much point in speeches about how the government intends to work to resolve environmental problems in the future if it continues to try to overturn policies that have protected our environment in the past.

The premier has made much of his meetings with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and his desire to follow the Californian lead on environmental issues.

On this issue, perhaps he should pay closer attention to and learn from the Californian experience on offshore oil and gas drilling.

Californians, led by their governor, are strong opponents of drilling off the coast. From experience, California knows the price that offshore oil and gas drilling and tanker traffic can exact on the natural environment -- not to mention a multi-billion-dollar tourism industry.

The governor knows that further environmental problems, including major spills such as the state has experienced in the past, are inevitable if further drilling takes place. So even in a state that used to export oil but is now highly dependent on imports, public opinion is still strongly opposed to coastal drilling.

California is not the only state opposed to offshore drilling. Even though the U.S. imports more than half the crude oil it consumes and faces daunting supply problems, the governors of every one of the lower 48 Atlantic and Pacific coastal states judge coastal drilling too high a risk to the environment and to tourism to justify.

Should Campbell wish to verify this, he could simply discuss it with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Even the governor's brother in the White House has not been able to change his opposition to drilling off the coast.

Fortunately, there is no need to rely on the opinions of Bush and Schwarzenegger. The B.C. government can review the work done in Canada 35 years ago that resulted in the ban on tankers and coastal drilling that we have today.

The results were conclusive -- so much so that all eight prime ministers since then have maintained the ban. Polls over those years show that the public agrees with that decision.

It is true of course, as proponents of drilling and tanker traffic constantly repeat, that there have been improvements in technology over the past 35 years. But that new technology certainly did not help prevent the devastation that took place to the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico over the past few years from hurricane damage.

And while it is also true that there have been dramatic improvements in the technology to keep ships and tankers safe, new marine technology did not prevent the Queen of the North, on a clear night one year ago, from sinking with loss of life. The bottom line is that we are a long way from truly "safe" oil drilling or transport in coastal waters.

British Columbians are pleased to hear Campbell's new, environment-friendly language. Actions, however speak louder than words. An announcement by him of continued support for this longstanding Canadian policy that has so far kept the risk of oil pollution on our coasts to a minimum has not yet been heard.

It is a matter of credibility and sincerity. It is hard for the public to accept the statements at face value and to believe that environmental policies will be better in the future if the premier is not willing to uphold successful environmental policies of the past.

David Anderson served 13 years as the MP for Victoria and five as Canada's minister of the environment. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as MP for Esquimalt-Saanich and MLA for Victoria, he led Canadian opposition to the establishment of the Alaskan tanker route off the Canadian West Coast.