SACRAMENTO — California’s opponents to offshore oil drilling joined forces on Thursday, marching to the Capitol to denounce President Trump’s proposal to give energy companies access to leases off the coast for the first time in decades.
“We are here today to show the Trump Administration that we won’t let him turn our oceans into oil” said Kristen Monsell of the new coalition Protect The Pacific, which represents some of the state’s environmental organizations opposed to drilling.
Demonstrators, arriving in buses and carpools from around the state, carried large inflatable turtles and whales and waved placards saying “Drills = Spills” and “Oil Money Out.” Speakers included Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, and state controller Betty Yee.
The rally was staged an hour before the Trump Administration’s only public hearing in California to discuss the federal offshore drilling plan. It is part of the 60-day comment period for the proposed program, which includes six lease sales off the California coast.
No public comment is allowed at the hearing, frustrating protestors. Instead, they demonstrated at a Peoples Town Hall, speaking into megaphones and rallying around from environmental leaders like Charles Lester, former director of the California Coastal Commission.
“This is the only opportunity people have to voice their the opinions — when all 1,100 miles of the coast are threatened. We are not invited to speak,” said Blake Kopcho of the Oakland-based Center for Biological Diversity.
The Trump proposal, part of a larger plan to unravel environmental restrictions to promote energy production, lifts a ban on drilling imposed by President Barack Obama.
The plan would allow oil and gas companies to lease 47 areas off America’s coastlines from 2019 to 2024, totaling up to 90 percent of the offshore areas where oil drilling is potentially allowed.
Calling it “a new path for energy dominance in America,” U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said that offshore drilling will produce more domestic energy and reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign sources.
But the plan is meeting fierce opposition along the Pacific coast, including from leaders such as California Gov. Jerry Brown, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
At the rally, Assemblymember Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, who introduced an Assembly Joint Resolution against new offshore drilling, said “I stand with the millions of Californians to strongly oppose this dangerous offshore drilling proposal…The increased threat of oil spills jeopardizes our tourism industry, coastal economy, and marine ecosystems.”
After Florida was exempted from the proposal, Gov. Brown appealed for similar consideration for California, noting broad bipartisan opposition across the state. There has yet been no response.
On Wednesday, the California State Lands Commission sent a letter to the federal government urging it to withdraw this area from leasing consideration, stating that California will not approve new pipeline or allow use of existing pipelines to transport oil from new leases ashore. The Commission manages oil, gas, and mineral resources in state waters.
The administration has also announced it would loosen oil-drilling rules put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Those rules require more frequent safety inspections of oil rig equipment.
But if it implements the proposal, the federal government faces a number of significant hurdles to new drilling in California.
At least 18 California coastal cities and nine of California’s 15 coastal counties — Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Sonoma, San Diego, Humboldt and Mendocino — have local laws that ban the construction of onshore oil terminals, pipelines and other oil equipment without a public vote.
In addition, all new oil and gas drilling is banned in state waters — from the beach out to three miles offshore — under a law signed by former California Gov. Pete Wilson. The Trump administration’s proposal would allow new drilling in federal waters, from three to 200 miles offshore.
Finally, under federal law, no drilling can occur in national marine sanctuaries, such as Monterey Bay, the Channel Islands or the Greater Farallones off the Marin and Sonoma coasts
“We need our coast, we need our water,” said demonstrator Sandra Lewis of Chico. “We need to keep the oil in the ground. We have so many alternatives possible.”
