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California vows to block oil from Trump’s offshore drilling expansion

Officials warn of 'catastrophic' consequences of extracting petroleum from beneath the seabed and declare 'the fossil fuel era is ending'

Jeremy B. White
San Francisco
Thursday 08 February 2018 00:34 GMT
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An offshore oil platform is seen in Huntington Beach, California
An offshore oil platform is seen in Huntington Beach, California

California officials have vowed to block oil and gas extracted from new offshore drilling entering the state in the latest effort to stymie the Trump administration.

The Interior Department’s announcement last month that it would open almost all public offshore waters to energy exploration — reversing Barack Obama’s move to shield millions of oceanic acres from development — spurred outrage from environmentally-friendly California. The governors of California, Washington and Oregon blasted the decision in a joint statement.

Escalating the pushback, members of the State Lands Commission said they would block the construction of new pipelines and forbid the use of existing ones to transport oil from newly issued offshore leases.

“I am resolved that not a single drop from Trump's new oil plan ever makes landfall in California, where our leadership in reducing emissions and curbing pollution has enabled exceptional economic growth,” Lt Gov Gavin Newsom, a leading candidate to become the state’s next governor and a vocal anti-Trump voice, said in a statement.

In a letter to a division of the US Interior Department, Mr Newsom, state controller Betty Yee and state finance chief Michael Cohen cautioned that federal leases opening the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf to new oil exploration posed “catastrophic peril”.

“Given how unpopular oil development in coastal waters is in California, it is certain the state would not approve new pipelines,” the letter said, adding that “the fossil fuel era is ending, and California is not interested in the boom-or-bust oil economy”.

A representative of the Interior Department said state “laws, goals, and policies” were a factor in approving federal lease sales that open the way to energy exploration.

California already sharply restricts offshore drilling. It has for decades prohibited new leases to extract oil and gas in state-managed coastal waters, which extend three miles off of the coast, a legacy of a 1969 oil spill that poured millions of gallons of oil into the ocean.

While the Democrat-dominated state has established itself as a leader on climate change, enshrining ambitious renewable energy targets, its oil and gas industry remains a formidable political force and one of the top lobbying spenders. A state bill to block new offshore drilling infrastructure like pipelines stalled last year.

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California is not alone in warning that new offshore oil drilling could degrade its environment and harm businesses that depend on a pristine coastline.

Republican officials in coastal states have issued similar complaints, and the Trump administration faced a backlash for exempting waters off of Florida – the home to Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat — at Republican Gov Rick Scott’s urging.

“Like Florida, which was recently exempted from the proposed leasing program, California has many coastal economies that are highly reliant on tourism as an economy driver,” the California officials’ letter said.

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