{"id":312809,"date":"2025-11-25T13:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/312809\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:24:10","slug":"guest-opinion-local-environmental-groups-urge-community-to-fight-like-hell-against-trumps-plan-to-expand-offshore-oil-drilling-to-west-coast-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/312809\/","title":{"rendered":"GUEST OPINION: Local Environmental Groups Urge Community to \u2018Fight Like Hell\u2019 Against Trump\u2019s Plan to Expand Offshore Oil Drilling to West Coast | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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An offshore oil rig in the Atlantic Ocean. | Photo: Jan-Rune Smenes Reite via Pexels<\/a><\/p>\n

PREVIOUSLY: State and Local Reps React to Trump Plan to Open More than 1 Billion Acres to New Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Trump Administration has announced its intention to expand offshore oil and gas
\ndevelopment off the coast of California. The Department of the Interior released its \u201c11th National Offshore Leasing Program<\/a>,\u201d which proposes as many as 34 potential offshore lease
\nsales, covering approximately 1.27 billion acres, including six sales in California. The North
\nCoast of California is home to three offshore oil and gas fields, including the Eel River Basin,
\nPoint Arena Basin, and the Bodega Basin. At this time it is unclear the degree to which oil and
\ngas development is a true threat. In 2018, Trump issued a similar call for new offshore fossil fuel
\ndevelopment, which resulted in new offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico, although none in
\nCalifornia. But we believe we should approach this threat as if it is serious, as we have seen the
\nconsequences of oil spills related to offshore oil and gas development in Santa Barbara in 1969
\nand 2015, Port Angeles in 1985, Grays Harbor in 1988, Alaska\u2019s Prince William Sound in 1989,
\nCoos Bay in 1999, and the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. \n<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we can do as a community to minimize the threat to the North Coast. \n<\/p>\n

Support Local Government Policies that Frustrate Oil and Gas Development<\/p>\n


\nWhile there are limits to local control of oil and gas development, particularly in offshore waters,
\nlocal governments can control land use associated with onshore support facilities. In 1988,
\nHumboldt County voters overwhelmingly approved Measure B<\/a>, which requires that all onshore
\noil and gas support facilities be approved by a vote of the people. It does not appear that the
\nCounty has codified Measure B into County Code, although we believe that the prohibitions
\ncontained in the measure still stand. In 2023, the Governor signed Senate Bill 704, which ended offshore oil and gas exemptions<\/a> in the Coastal Act dating back to the 1980s. The result is that it
\nwill be much more difficult to build new or expanded oil and gas facilities such as oil terminals,
\npipelines, or support facilities on land zoned for Coastal-Dependent Industry. These uses could
\nstill be proposed, but now they are required to comply with the Coastal Act. Furthermore, in
\n2025, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution in opposition<\/a> to
\npotential oil and gas development. \n<\/p>\n

While these measures form an initial bulwark against onshore support facilities, we urge further
\naction. The Board of Supervisors should ensure that the voter-approved Measure B is codified
\ninto County Code and review the Measure to ensure that it is sufficient to meet the current
\nthreat. Additionally, we urge other coastal jurisdictions, including the City of Eureka and the
\nHumboldt Bay Harbor District to pass similar resolutions and take additional further actions. \n<\/p>\n


\nSupport Alternatives to Fossil Fuels <\/p>\n

The threat to drill for oil and gas offshore exists because we do not have adequate renewable
\nenergy. Full stop. In addition to reducing our energy usage through improved efficiency and
\nconservation, we need to develop more renewable energy. For the North Coast, this means
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\ntaking a hard look at floating offshore wind energy generation, solar, battery storage, and other
\nactions to generate and store renewable energy. \n<\/p>\n

Fight Like Hell <\/p>\n

Should the Trump Administration move forward with any offshore oil and gas development, your
\nNorth Coast environmental organizations will stand together to fight like hell in opposition. We
\nurge you to join in this fight. \n<\/p>\n


\nTom Wheeler
Executive Director, EPIC<\/p>\n

Jennifer Kalt
Executive Director, Humboldt Waterkeeper \n<\/p>\n

Alicia Hamann
Executive Director, Friends of the Eel River \n<\/p>\n

Alicia Bales
Chapter Director, Sierra Club Redwood Chapter \n<\/p>\n

Kathryn Wendel
President, Redwood Region Audubon Society \n<\/p>\n

Dan Chandler
350 Humboldt \n<\/p>\n

Wendy Ring
Humboldt Coalition for Clean Energy \n<\/p>\n

Sue Lee
Chair, Climate Action Campaign at Humboldt UU Fellowship<\/p>\n


\nMichael Welch
Director, Redwood Alliance \n<\/p>\n

Lee Dedini
Arcata Presbyterian Earth Care \n<\/p>\n

Larry Glass
Northcoast Environmental Center \n<\/p>\n

Joe Gillespie
President, Friends of Del Norte \n<\/p>\n

Nick Joslin
Policy and Advocacy Director, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center \n<\/p>\n

Jessie Misha
Chair, Surfrider Foundation Humboldt Chapter \n<\/p>\n

Suzie Fortner
Executive Director, Friends of the Dunes \n<\/p>\n

Luke Ruediger
Siskiyou Crest Coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An offshore oil rig in the Atlantic Ocean. | Photo: Jan-Rune Smenes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-312809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}