A potential area for oil drilling off the Outer Banks.

In 1981, three oil companies — Mobil Corp., Marathon and Amerada Hess Corp. — began leasing an area about 45 miles off Cape Hatteras called the Manteo Exploration Unit. 

In 1989, the companies turned a draft plan for oil exploration into the U.S. Department of the Interior. Though federal officials said the plan would not harm the coast, environmentalists and residents objected. 

In August of 1990, Congress passed the Outer Banks Protection Act, which barred the Interior department from issuing any new offshore drilling leases just before Mobil sank its first exploratory well.

The moratorium was later extended along the entire East Coast to 2012.

The companies sued, arguing that the government had essentially changed the rules in the middle of the permitting process.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, ruling 8-1 that the federal government Mobil and Marathon $156 million in permitting fees.

There are currently no active leases off the Atlantic coast.