The next time you drive west on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, just as you pass Clairemont Drive, a new billboard might catch your attention. It reads, “Enjoy Your New Sunset,” and shows a picture of a sunset and offshore drilling platforms.
“So our billboards, our three billboards in beach-loving Clairemont, in beach-loving PB, really highlight the devastating impact an oil spill would cause on the ocean, wildlife and San Diego,” Serge Dedina, a former mayor of Imperial Beach who is now the Executive Director of WildCoast, told NBC 7.
Last year, the Trump administration announced its plans to drill for oil off the coast of California, and the proposal has been met with strong opposition.
“To think that we’re going to be looking out over oil rigs, it’s just nuts,” Russell Moore said.
Moore owns Xplore Offshore, a local boating company that takes people out to sea for ocean excursions like whale watching. The ocean is his office, but more than that, it’s home to marine life and species he wants to protect.
“A gray whale comes up next to you, or a humpback whale breaches next to you, you have a different vision for the world after that,” Moore said. “It changes you in a visceral way, because you’re experiencing this wonder that’s right there.”
As the former mayor of IB where sewage spills have fouled the coast for years, Dedina knows firsthand what it takes to fight for clean and safe oceans. He fears that, if offshore drilling is approved, the worst could happen, because it’s happened before.
”Everywhere in Southern California where we have oil drilling and oil production — in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange County — we’ve had devastating oil spills,” Dedina said.
According to the Orange County Coastkeeper, here is a list of oil spills in California coastal areas:
2021: Amplify Spill – nearly five miles offshore of Huntington Beach
2015: Refugio Spill — off the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County
2007: Cosco Busan Spill — San Francisco Bay Bridge
1969: Union Oil Spill — Santa Barbara Channel
On Friday, just beneath the billboard, local and state leaders stood beside members of the Sierra Club and WildCoast, giving voice to their opposition tof offshore drilling.
Rep. Mike Levin said during a news conference that even if every square mile off the California coast was drilled into, it would barely register in the global markets when it comes to oil production.
As environmental reviews continue for new offshore sites, the administration’s plan proposes six offshore lease sales off the coast of California, and new drilling off Florida’s coast too.
”This goes against the grain of everything that we fight for in terms of environmental protection to try to reduce oil drilling in general,” San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava said Friday.
While a joint letter to the Trump administration from the American Petroleum Institute and other organizations said drilling offshore brings new jobs and revenue, opponents like Dedina said it’s the very thing that could sunset San Diego’s coastal economy and marine life, and it’s not worth the risk.
“We can’t afford to have oil foul our economy and our culture, and ruin the lives of families,” Dedina said.
According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the first lease sales for offshore drilling sites along areas of California’s central and southern coast could happen as early as next year.