The PCL Insider: News From The Capitol

CALIFORNIA'S COAST THREATENED BY MOVE TO END OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING MORATORIUM

California's longstanding moratorium on offshore oil drilling is threatened this year by a controversial rollback effort in Washington DC, led by California Congressman Richard Pombo. Under the perverse and complex provisions of his bill, HR 4761, all states would lose their current rights relative to determining gas pipeline routes within their own state waters, would be denied the right to public input under federal environmental review processes for drilling leases off of their shores, and would have no voice in preventing or mitigating adverse impacts, including routine drilling discharges and spills, resulting from drilling operations in coastal waters off of adjacent states.

In addition to the Pombo bill, the U.S. Senate has come up with its own offshore oil drilling legislation, including a recently-announced Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) "deal" opening up eight million acres off of Florida's west coast to new offshore drilling, much of it within sensitive waters protected for the past twenty-five years through the bipartisan legislative moratorium.

These anti-environmental measures come as two prestigious national commissions, the Pew Oceans Commission and the National Commission on Ocean Policy, call for improved ocean governance and the intelligent management and restoration of our marine environment.

If the House and Senate bills are both approved by the Legislature, they will head to a conference committee to create a single piece of legislation that could undo decades of hard work and paralyze coastal zone management for all coastal states.

PCL applauds California's two U.S. Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, for their strong support of the coastal oil drilling moratorium. We must now convince the California members of the U.S. Congress to do the same. Please contact your U.S. Congressperson today and let them know "No offshore oil drilling. No deals. No backsliding. Period."

To find your Congressperson visit: http://www.house.gov/.