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The Department of Interior released a draft of a five-year offshore drilling plan just after the beginning of 2018. In the largest expansion of offshore drilling, the plan would expand drilling off America’s coasts, including in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Arctic.
Six drilling sites along the West Coast are in the plan: two in Northern California, two in Central California, and two in Southern California. Californians have long known and felt the effects of coastal oil drilling. They’ve seen the coastlines fouled, air dirtied, and climate disrupted.
Within hours, California state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson and Sen. Ricardo Lara introduced SB 834 and Assembly members Al Muratsuchi and Monique Limón introduced AB 1775, identical bills that will help discourage offshore drilling by making it harder for offshore oil to be processed.
“Donald Trump and Ryan Zinke are now trying to sell out our coastal communities, our waters, and our climate in order to please corporate polluters," Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said. "Millions of Americans have raised their voices to send a message, loud and clear, that they do not want offshore drilling off our coasts, but rather than listen to the people they are supposed to work for, Trump and Zinke are listening to the industry that’s bankrolled their campaigns and filled their administration."
It will require a long, strong effort to stop the new offshore drilling plans. That effort begins with steps you can take right now.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is collecting comments on this catastrophic new plan until March 9. Tell them how unpopular and short-sighted this plan is by sending a message that says “We Won’t Stand for Drilling in Our Oceans!”
Why drilling makes no sense in California
The Pacific Ocean has been off limits to new oil leases for 35 years, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, including a moratorium issued by George H.W. Bush. Offshore drilling directly threatens coastal communities and marine life with oil spills and toxic pollution. California communities know this all too well -- a 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara dumped close to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into the Central California coastline.
Since 1986, the more than 600 oil and gas pipeline spills, explosions, and other incidents that have occurred in California caused at least $769 million in damages, 200 injuries, and close to 50 deaths.
Also, given California’s vulnerability to sea level rise, wildfires, and drought, Californians should oppose offshore drilling not just in the Pacific, but in all of our oceans, including in the Arctic and Atlantic as well.