Some of the first public discussions in decades about oil and gas exploration off Florida's Atlantic coast opened Wednesday in Jacksonville with a small crowd that saw a lot at stake.

The U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service scheduled two hearings Wednesday about what issues to consider when it studies environmental effects of testing to chart reserves of offshore fuels. As backers of offshore drilling talked up the potential to create jobs and raise tax revenues, people worried about environmental damage warned about damage to endangered species and to clean beaches. Both arguments were leaps beyond the formal reason for Wednesdays hearing, which involved only discussions about how scientists and engineers should identify the areas most likely to be house new power sources.

But the bottom line was really about drilling someday, said both sides in the audience of about 25 people. "I know you're just talking about seismic exploration. To me, it's a slippery slope," said Lesley Royce, a Duval Audubon Society member who warned about wildlife impacts. She and others stressed the importance of Florida coastlines as calving grounds for endangered right whales, warning that noise from acoustic tests could drive sound-sensitive whales away from critical habitat.

She also worried about oil spills and other pollution from any wells that were eventually drilled. "Even though you're not talking about drilling ... I think that's going to follow," Royce said. "We don't want those oil derricks off the coast of Florida."

There's probably a lot to drill for, said David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, a trade group. "Developing these resources could translate into thousands of jobs," he said, calling the Atlantic reserves "essential for our nation's future energy security." Mica said billions of gallons of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas are thought to be buried off the Southeast coast, but that new research is needed to define those reserves.

The hearing Wednesday follows President Barack Obama's decision last month to lift a decades-old moratorium on oil and gas exploration on the South's Atlantic coast, including the northern half of Florida. The meeting was an early "scoping" step in a process of planning for offshore tests.

A study weighing environmental dangers against possible benefits will be written in draft form by next year, and should be finalized in 2012, said Joe Christopher, regional supervisor for the mineral service's leasing office in New Orleans. That will become a basis for decisions about what type of testing to allow, and where, which could lead to drilling in some of those sites years later.

Christopher said the research could also be used by companies considering setting up offshore wind-power facilities, because they will need to understand the ocean floor under their sites. Those wind-power facilities might be a good idea, but drilling is "really what we're talking about, " answered Jeff Light of St. Augustine, who said that worries him.

It's been 30 years since much testing was done off the Southeast coast, and newer technology might identify conditions that would have been missed then, said Jim White, who chairs the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, a Texas-based trade group.

Hearings similar to those Wednesday are scheduled in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and New Jersey this month.