Local environmentalists applaud Biden’s offshore oil drilling restrictions
Local environmentalists and offshore drilling opponents are welcoming President Joe Biden’s announcement he is ordering a ban on new oil and gas drilling that includes along the California coastline, arguing the risks far outweigh the benefits.
The move comes as the days tick down on the end of Biden’s term; Biden is using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, or OCSLA, to restrict an area greater than 625 million acres – the largest withdrawal in U.S. history. The safeguards he is ordering will restrict new offshore drilling and natural gas leasing along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.
Surfrider Foundation CEO Chad Nelsen called the latest restrictions announced by Biden “fantastic news.”
“Offshore drilling, as we saw in Huntington Beach just a few years back, is a dirty and dangerous business,” he said. “It’s unpopular, it threatens our coastal environment and communities.”
For Southern Californians, the repercussions of a 25,000 gallon oil spill off Huntington Beach in 2021 are still fresh, an incident that killed wildlife and shut down beaches and coastal fishing for weeks. A $50 million settlement was reached in class action claims made by local fishing interests, tourism companies and homeowners and millions more paid to government agencies.
Nelsen said Biden’s action helps solidify the president’s pro-conservation stance to protect ocean and land across the country.
Garry Brown, founder and president of Orange County Coastkeeper, said several environmental organizations got together last year to sign letters to Congress and the White House urging the move.
Already, there has been a moratorium on off-shore leases in state of California waters since 1969 – typically within 3 nautical miles off the coast – and the last federal lease sale in the area was in 1984, Brown said.
“As much as we are delighted and this adds further protection, we have for several decades now been pretty adamant that there will be no more oil drilling off California’s coast,” Brown said. “We’re glad to see more protections, but we didn’t really feel too much of a threat.”
Still, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the president’s decision a “bold action.”
“Hundreds of miles of California’s iconic coastline are now fully protected from expanded offshore drilling, thanks to today’s action by President Biden. For decades, we have led the fight to protect the Pacific Coast and the millions of Californians who call these coastal communities home,” Newsom said in a statement.
Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield said the agency is not aware of any impacts to be expected locally from Biden’s new order. Representatives with the Western State Petroleum Association could not be immediately reached for comment.
What needs to be figured out is the future of the existing platforms and operations still happening off the coast, Brown said. There are approximately 30 existing leases offshore Southern California that are decades old. Nothing in the president’s order would affect rights under existing leases.
“That’s going to be a nightmare for years to come, they are ending their usefulness and lifespan, but it’s so expensive to take them out,” Brown said. “There’s no clear way on how those are going to be taken out.”
Staff Writers Donna Littlejohn and Kristy Hutchings contributed to this report.