Environmentalists Fear New Push For Oil Drilling Off California Coast
(KPIX 5) -- It's been decades since California allowed any new offshore oil drilling but environmentalists say the Trump administration is now trying to force the issue in a battle that is 50 years in the making.
In 1969, a major blowout from offshore oil derricks spewed 3 million gallons of crude oil onto the beaches of Santa Barbara, killing wildlife and overwhelming all attempts to contain it. As a result, a permanent moratorium on new drilling platforms was established in the waters off California.
"And people in California learned that this technology was not fail-safe and you could have accidents that you not only couldn't clean up. You couldn't shut them off," said Richard Charter, Senior Fellow from the Ocean Foundation.
By comparison, the beach at Sonoma County's Bodega Bay is clean and inviting but the Santa Barbara spill turned a lot of coast dwellers against the idea of offshore drilling.
"Just saddened by the sight of that," said beachgoer Frances Rivetti. "To imagine that happening here is unconscionable."
That's why it was such a shock when, last year, the Trump administration announced plans to offer drilling leases along virtually all of the nation's coastline.
"They weren't necessarily economically poised to do the drilling right away," Charter said, "But once they own the tract they can do it whenever they want. They wait until the economic benefits are there for them. So, once you lose your coast, it's gone."
Then on Thursday, a surprise. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced that the leasing program would be put on hold until after the 2020 Presidential Election. But in the meantime, the administration is working to remove rules that give state and local officials a say in whether there is drilling off their coasts. That's prompted objections from throughout California, from Bay Area counties to the state attorney general.
"I don't think they're going to stop just because they made this announcement," said Cea Higgins, Executive Director of an environmental group called Coastwalk California. "They're going to continue to try in their efforts, bit by bit, to remove these protections. And so, I think the fear is real and the vigilance is necessary."
It's been half a century since the Santa Barbara spill and environmentalists say if people are forgetting the lesson from that disaster, they will be doomed to repeat it.
"You don't want have this to become a laboratory for an oil spill on the Sonoma Coast," Charter said. "That's the last thing you want to see."
The environmentalists believe this issue was tabled for political reasons. They say President Trump might not want to pick a fight with 17 states right before an election. But they believe if he is reelected, the battle over offshore oil will begin again in earnest.
