-June 30,2019-
President Trump’s plan to open California waters for offshore oil drilling has been blocked in Congress this past week under a bill championed by Central Coast congressman Salud Carbajal and others. Trump says he wants to open more than 90 percent of American waters to oil and gas development, including along the California coastline.
In a key vote the House voted June 21 to adopt several amendments to the Department of Interior budget for next year that ban the agency from spending any money for new offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, more than 3 miles off the coast. According to the Bay Area News Group. “Without funding, the Trump administration cannot hold public hearings, perform the legal work, complete required studies and oversee lease sales to oil companies.”
The report quotes one expert. “Congress is saying you can’t have the money to drill here,” said veteran coastal activist Richard Charter of Bodega Bay, a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation. “I think Trump’s offshore drilling plan is dead in the water for now.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Oceana, The Sierra Club, Surfrider, The National Parks Conservation Association, and Native Movement offered the following statement in response:
“Our federal budget reflects our values as a nation. This decisive action by the House of Representatives to block funding to advance offshore drilling activities supports healthy communities, oceans, national parks, climate and marine life. We cannot allow the oil and gas industry to boost its profits while our environment and coastal economies suffer the consequences of devastating oil spills.”
Three amendments adopted to a spending bill, H.R. 3052, by Rep. Pallone (D-NJ), Rep. Carbajal (D-CA), and Rep. Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) (#88, #26, and #95 respectively) bar the use of Department of the Interior funds for offshore drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf Coast respectively. Additionally, an adopted amendment by Rep. Cunningham (D-SC) (#18) bars the use of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) funds to allow seismic airgun blasting.
The House will hold a final vote on the spending bills this week. The bills go then to the GOP controlled Senate.The Senate is not considered likely to block the House actions, however, because several Republicans representing coastal states, such as Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, where business leaders and GOP governors have come out against new drilling, quietly oppose it.
The votes on these amendments were the first time the 116th Congress voted on legislation to block offshore drilling and exploration and follows a decades long tradition of offshore moratoriums in the Interior-Environment Appropriations funding bill. A coalition of bipartisan stakeholders support blocking the expansion of offshore exploration and drilling, including every East and West Coast governor and more than 2,200 elected officials says the NRDC.