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<\/a><\/p>\nFor weeks, tourists canceled hotel reservations and rental bookings. Entire coastal towns \u2013 places that come alive on weekends with families, anglers, and vacationers \u2013 fell silent. Lost visitors and an ocean awash in toxic oil meant lost income for hundreds of other local businesses: hotels, fishermen, restaurants, surf shops, tour guides.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s what an oil spill does \u2013 it devastates our beaches, our wildlife, and our economy.<\/p>\n Making noise where it matters.<\/p>\n You’ve read article. Keep cranking up the volume on what’s happening behind the scenes in Orange County with the Morning Report newsletter.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the federal government doesn\u2019t appear interested in learning from this brutal lesson from our county\u2019s recent history.\u00a0<\/p>\n Did you catch that? <\/p>\n From local politics to the people and policies shaping our daily lives\u2014it\u2019s all in The Morning Report. Don\u2019t miss out on this free daily email.<\/p>\n Last November, the US Department of Interior proposed to open all federal waters off California to new ocean drilling by holding the first West Coast offshore oil and gas lease sales in more than 40 years. The response from our state was swift, vast, and bipartisan. The Interior Department reportedly\u00a0received<\/a>\u00a0more than 300,000 letters from the public opposing their drilling plan. Governor Newsom\u00a0rightly asked<\/a>\u00a0why the waters off Mar-a-Lago were excluded from it. And Republican Assemblymember Laurie Davies from Laguna Niguel announced she is officially a\u00a0\u201chell no\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on the proposal, joining 45 other legislators to co-author a bipartisan anti-offshore drilling resolution introduced in the Capitol last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thank you for your support. <\/p>\n With articles read this month, you clearly you care about holding power to account and protecting public interest in Orange County.<\/p>\n Support fearless, in-depth reporting by making a tax-deductible donation.<\/p>\n Yet on January 26, just two days after the closure of Interior Department\u2019s public comment period for the proposed drilling plan, the federal agency unexpectedly\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0they are moving ahead to identify specific areas for development for all federal waters between San Diego and Mendocino County, fast-tracking the process toward lease sales in 2027. It\u2019s as if our federal government completely ignored those 300,000 public comments on the future of our shared coast.<\/p>\n Non-partisan. No advertisers. No paywalls. No hidden agendas. The January announcement revealed two critical facts about the federal drilling agenda: the threat of new and expanded drilling up and down the West Coast is very real, and the threat is urgent for Orange County\u2019s residents, business owners, and environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n We need to speak louder, and the business community is ready to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast (BAPPC) represents more than 8,175 West Coast companies that agree that our prosperity and our quality of life depend on a clean and healthy coast, and that new offshore drilling \u2013 and the spills that go with it \u2013 make no sense for our communities or our economy.<\/p>\n California\u2019s coastal counties are an absolute powerhouse, generating around\u00a080 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the state\u2019s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while covering just 22 percent of its land area. Coastal recreation and tourism are a major economic driver,\u00a0supporting<\/a>\u00a0more than 441,000 jobs and generating more than $26 billion in GDP. Visitors, workers, and business owners are attracted to our coast because it\u2019s beautiful and a great place to live, not because of oil rigs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal plan puts this all at risk. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill stained more than\u00a01300 miles<\/a>\u00a0of the Gulf Coast, greater than the full length of the California coastline, and shuttered coastal businesses for months and even years. Why should we sacrifice our diverse, vibrant coastal economy for one risky special interest?<\/p>\n BAPPC and our members are making our voices heard about the Interior Department\u2019s new announcement \u2013 making the case that new drilling they\u2019re seeking to impose on Orange County and the rest of coastal California is simply inconsistent with the economic prosperity of our country and our state. I encourage all of us who care about the future of our cherished coast to\u00a0do the same<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grant Bixby is Principal Broker of Bixby Residential Group in Newport Beach, and a Founding Member of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast. He lives in Newport Beach.<\/p>\n Opinions expressed in community opinion pieces belong to the authors and not Voice of OC.<\/p>\n Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please\u00a0email\u00a0opinions@voiceofoc.org.<\/p>\n This is what accountability looks like. <\/p>\n For 16 years, Voice of OC has been Orange County\u2019s trusted source for fearless, non-partisan coverage. <\/p>\n We\u2019ve tracked the big shakeups, the quiet deals, and the decisions that hit you where it counts\u2014 your wallet, your home, your community.<\/p>\n From corruption investigations to housing shortages, from environmental challenges to the local economy, we follow the facts so you can follow what\u2019s really happening in your backyard.<\/p>\n No ads. No paywalls. No spin. Just the truth.<\/p>\n And none of it happens without you. <\/p>\n If you believe Orange County deserves this kind of coverage, join us by making a tax-deductible contribution today.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The morning after the 2021 oil spill off Huntington Beach, the air smelled like asphalt. Beaches were roped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[94928,163,165,164,94929,94930,94931,94932,975,94933],"class_list":["post-205432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-2021-oil-spill","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-bappc","tag-business-alliance-for-protecting-the-pacific-coast","tag-grant-bixby","tag-huntington-beach-oil-spill","tag-opinion","tag-us-department-of-interior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772706427_1_You-Found-Us-Instagram.png\")
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