House bill would lift oil drilling ban in Pacific
By JESSICA ROBERTS Special to the Daily Press
OCEAN AVENUE — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined leaders of local and national environmental organizations Tuesday at Loew’s Hotel to bring attention to a House bill she says could allow offshore oil drilling in the Pacific.
“I’m here to alert California to the growing possibility that there could be new drilling off our coast,” Feinstein said.
Gathered in a glass-walled alcove overlooking the beach, the Santa Monica Baykeeper,the Environmental Defense Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Heal the Bay and Environment Now applauded the senator for her leadership.
Tracy Egoscue, executive director of the Santa Monica Baykeeper, said Feinstein had called her and said she wanted to hold a news conference in Santa Monica with a view of the bay.
“It speaks to the beauty of the coastline here,” Egoscue added.
Santa Monica’s coastline could be threatened by offshore drilling, according to Feinstein. The House of Representatives passed a bill in June that would eliminate federal moratoria on oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific outer continental shelf — restrictions that have been in place since 1981.
The bill, supported by Representative Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.), would permanently lift the moratorium on drilling 100 miles offshore, require a state legislature vote to ban drilling 50 to 100 miles offshore, and leave open the possibility for drilling as close as three miles from shore.
Pombo said in a statement issued in June that the bill “will increase supplies of American energy, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and give California unassailable protections for its coasts,” emphasizing the California Legislature’s control over drilling in the 50 to 100 mile range.
Earlier this month the Senate passed a bill extending a ban on offshore drilling on Florida’s gulf coast, but does not protect California’s coastline. Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) voted against the bill.
The House and Senate bills must be reconciled, and Feinstein said she was worried that the bill coming out of the Conference Committee could open the way for drilling off the California coast.
“There’s very real concern. That’s why we’re here today — to raise that red flag...,” Feinstein said. “We have to be vigilant. We have to be on guard.”
She praised Santa Monica residents, and called upon their environmentalism and dedication to protecting the bay to help the cause.
“I know of no place on the coast more concerned than Santa Monica,” Feinstein said.
Alix Gerosa, operations director for Heal the Bay, said her organization stood in agreement with Feinstein and affirmed the senator’s hopes for activism.
“Californians don’t want sunsets marred by oil rigs,” she said.
Another issue for Californians is the status of two proposals to drill off the coast of Santa Barbara, not far from the site of a pipeline spill in 1969. The drilling plans would take advantage of what Feinstein called a loophole in California law that allows for drilling in state tidelands from wells in federal waters.
Plains Exploration would like to “slant” drill 30 new wells from Platform Irene, while ExxonMobil would drill the same wells from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The slant drilling process involves a non-vertical drill to avoid state restrictions which would prevent oil companies from building wells in protected waters.
The proposals, from Plains Exploration, as well as ExxonMobil and Sunset Exploration, are currently in the environmental review phase, according to Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center.
Feinstein also spoke generally about the need to move away from fossil fuels and said she had met with Al Gore on Monday to discuss the issue.
She said she intends to bring three bills before Congress when the new session begins, one to permanently ban offshore drilling, another to address greenhouse gases, and a third bipartisan bill to require lowering vehicle gas mileage by 10 miles per gallon in 10 years — a difference Feinstein said would save 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, or exactly the amount the country currently imports.
However, she expressed skepticism about the government’s action on environmental issues, especially global warming.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with Congress,” she said, likening its members to ostriches with their heads in the sand. “This fight has been going on for 30 years.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 30, 2006. Read the original PDF.