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On Sunday, August 20, I joined Senator Barbara Boxer, Assemblyman Pedro Nava, and other local leaders in Santa Barbara to discuss the threat of new oil and gas drilling off our coasts and the need for a new direction for our nation’s energy policies.
We now face the most serious challenge to the Congressional ban on new offshore drilling since its inception 25 years ago. Recently the House and Senate passed bills allowing drilling in historically protected areas. The bills differ and must be reconciled, but both would eviscerate coastal protections and promote a solution to our energy needs that is doomed to fail.
For 25 years a bipartisan consensus to protect our coasts has held through Democratic and Republican controlled Congresses and Administrations. But these new bills could bring this consensus to an end.
The Senate bill expands offshore drilling into areas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, while leaving in place, for the moment, current protections for California and many other coastal states. The bill also has a revenue sharing provision that will increase our already huge federal budget deficit by billions of dollars.
The House bill is even worse. This legislation allows drilling as close as 50 miles from all coastlines. While states can petition to temporarily extend that to 100 miles, numerous hurdles must be cleared and the petitions can be denied by the federal government. Conversely, the bill attempts to bribe states into pushing for drilling close to shore with incentives that will increase the federal deficit by billions of dollars according to the Bush Administration.
Another fatal flaw in the House bill is that it allows individual states to set national ocean policy. As recent reports from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission point out, we need comprehensive solutions to critical problems with ocean pollution and the depletion of fisheries. Meeting those challenges will be harder if various states are allowed to decide where to drill for oil in the federal waters off their coasts.
In the end of the year rush to finish legislation, all kinds of mischief is possible in Washington. That leaves the very real possibility that the effort to reconcile these drilling bills could result in final legislation looking more like the atrocious House bill than the bad Senate bill.
In California we know how important coastal protection is to our environment and our economy, and nowhere is this truer than on the South Coast. We are among a few coastal communities with active drilling within view of our coastline. Everyday we look out on our ocean and see the telltale silhouettes of drilling platforms. Those platforms serve as a constant reminder of the dangers of drilling -- whether offshore or onshore-- and the devastating consequences when there’s a spill.
I along, with many of you, witnessed the devastating effects of the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, and the countless pipeline ruptures and leaks since then. The recent pipeline spill in Alaska has demonstrated again that drilling is a dirty, dangerous business.
Ironically, proponents of new drilling have already tried to use the Alaska pipeline shutdown to promote more drilling off our coasts as a solution to our nation’s energy problems. But more drilling would have zero impact on today’s record gas prices. We simply can’t drill our way out of this problem.
We can, however, find a new direction for our energy policy. We can begin today! Right now we can dramatically reduce our demand for fossil fuels by improving the efficiency of our automobiles, buildings, appliances and other energy users. We can use more renewable energy sources, like wind, solar, and biomass. We can aggressively promote the development of new energy saving technologies. These common sense solutions are achievable and good for our economy and our environment. And, best of all, we can start reaping the benefits immediately.
But we cannot continue to run a 21st century economy on a 19th century technology. Our country has been beholden to the oil and gas special interests for far too long and the costs are mounting. It’s gotten so bad that even President Bush admits we are “addicted to oil” and we must change course. Unfortunately, that message hasn’t gotten through to the Republican leadership of Congress, whose “drill only” policy is their only answer to our nation’s energy needs.
I will continue to work in Washington to oppose new drilling off our coasts. And I will continue to challenge my colleagues to find that new direction on energy policy.
Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.
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