News item: President Donald Trump (still) intends to allow oil drilling off the California coast.<\/p>\n
This unsurprising announcement came soon after his inauguration in 2017, then a few months into his first term and once more in early 2018. Now, nearly eight years later as Trump serves a second term, a document leaked to the Houston Chronicle reveals yet another plan to open whole swaths of the Pacific Coast to oil and gas drilling, including some North Coast marine sanctuaries.<\/p>\n
None of Trump\u2019s previous proposals got very far.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s reassuring, though it\u2019s no guarantee that California\u2019s majestic coast and the communities it supports will be spared again.<\/p>\n
Once again, it\u2019s up to California to protect this 840-mile treasure from exploitation.<\/p>\n
Tourism and recreation contribute billions of dollars to California\u2019s economy, the fourth largest in the world, and pristine beaches and the Pacific Ocean are symbols of the Golden State recognized worldwide.<\/p>\n
Offshore platforms, shoreline terminals and tanker trucks rumbling up and down Highway 1 are incompatible with tourism.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing theoretical about the potential for environmental catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez.<\/p>\n
Here in California, a 1969 blowout on a Union Oil rig near Santa Barbara resulted in more than 3 million gallons of crude oil spewing into the ocean, killing wildlife and befouling beaches as far away as Ventura. In 2015, a pipeline rupture allowed 143,000 gallons to spill off the coast of Santa Barbara. In 2021, after an anchor damaged a pipeline in San Pedro Bay, about 25,000 gallons of crude washed up near Huntington Beach. Let\u2019s not risk that on the Sonoma Coast.<\/p>\n
About 30 oil rigs are still operating in state and federal waters off Southern California, though the state Lands Commission hasn\u2019t approved any new leases in state waters since the Santa Barbara spill in 1969.<\/p>\n
Beginning in 1984, Congress approved a series of moratoriums that banned new leases in federal waters off California\u2019s coast for a quarter century. Presidents including George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden expanded national marine sanctuaries, including the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank off Sonoma and Marin counties, promising permanent protection.<\/p>\n
Trump, according to the Houston Chronicle report, wants to claw back some of those protections and offer oil and gas leases from Big Sur to the Oregon border, beginning as soon as 2027. He reportedly has scrapped plans to open the Atlantic Coast, leaving only the Pacific at immediate risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re coming for us,\u201d Santa Cruz County Supervisor Justin Cummings told The Press Democrat\u2019s Austin Murphy. \u201cAnd we have to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offshore drilling isn\u2019t only a threat to California\u2019s tourism economy. It\u2019s bad energy policy and bad climate policy. For true energy independence and to safeguard our warming planet, the U.S. must rely less on oil and more on wind, solar, geothermal and other forms of clean, renewable energy.<\/p>\n
The United States has been a net exporter of petroleum products since 2020, according to government data. In other words, the U.S. already sells more oil than it purchases from other countries \u2014 without risking spills off California\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n
Even with a transition to green energy, the U.S. will remain oil dependent for years, perhaps decades. That\u2019s why California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom approved expanded production in Kern County\u2019s inland oil fields. They may need to take further steps to ensure California has refining capacity to maintain adequate supplies of gasoline while drivers transition to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
Trump says climate change is a hoax. In 2025, that\u2019s about as sensible as claiming the earth is flat. Or doubling down on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n