SANTA CRUZ — U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on Thursday announced plans for possible offshore drilling around the U.S. that could include the California coast.
Plans for the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program would allow federal officials to conduct future exploration and development at 47 sites, and would last from 2019-24, Zinke announced in a press release.
The proposal includes two sites each in Northern, Central and Southern California, and one in Washington and Oregon. There have been no new sales of drilling leases to energy production companies in the Pacific Region since 1984.
Currently there are 43 leases in Southern California.
According to Zinke, the plan would make available some 98 percent of the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas.
“Responsibly developing our energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf in a safe and well-regulated way is important to our economy and energy security, and it provides billions of dollars to fund the conservation of our coastlines, public lands and parks,” Zinke said.
Save Our Shores Executive Director Katherine O’Dea said drilling would reverse 40 years of environmental protections.
“We could not have dreamed we would come full circle back to the same fight four decades later, and we will not stand idly by while a reckless federal administration tries to reverse these hard-won protections,” she said.
An oil spill, O’Dea said, would “wreak havoc” on the marine ecosystems. Still, it’s too soon to tell whether the proposal would affect the Monterey Bay, O’Dea said.
Department of the Interior press secretary Heather Swift said that drilling in national marine sanctuaries is illegal, and that Zinke has “no interest” in doing so.
But in October, U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross sent a list of recommendations to President Donald Trump about whether to change the boundaries to 11 marine sanctuaries. That report has not been made available to the public, and it is not yet clear whether Trump has acted on the recommendations.
Zinke said the announcement “lays out the options that are on the table,” and starts a public comment period on possible drilling.
“Just like with mining, not all areas are appropriate for offshore drilling, and we will take that into consideration in the coming weeks,” he said. “The important thing is we strike the right balance to protect our coasts and people while still powering America and achieving American energy dominance.”
According to O’Dea, the Monterey Bay sanctuary was afforded its protections through an act of congress, and as such would take the same to reverse them.
But Trump has ordered a review of sanctuaries created within last 10 years, and on areas added in the last 10 years to existing ones, O’Dea said.
This includes the Davidson Seamount in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which is one of the largest known seamounts in U.S. waters, according to the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Association.
While the Davidson Seamount is not thought to contain an appreciable amount of oil or gas, it could yield valuable minerals, O’Dea said.
“It’s a threat we have to take very seriously,” she said.
If a company is awarded a new permit to drill, it would still have to conduct seismic and environmental studies, O’Dea said.
According to Zinke, his announcement followed requests earlier this year from 155 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in support of a five-year plan to bolster American energy dominance, a sentiment repeatedly echoed by Trump.
The plan includes 19 sites off the coast of Alaska, seven in the Pacific Region, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, and nine in the Atlantic Region.
Bureau of Energy Management Acting Director Walter Cruickshank said that energy production could be “competitive while remaining safe and environmentally sound.”
Katie Davis, who chairs the Santa Barbara Sierra Club Group, disagrees.
“Here in Santa Barbara, we have felt first-hand the economic, human and ecological impacts of terrible offshore oils spills, and last time Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke visited Santa Barbara, he was protested by large crowds that did not want additional drilling,” Davis said. “Secretary Zinke is acting against local communities, businesses and the environment.”
California officials will hold a public forum about Zinke’s proposal on Feb. 8 in Sacramento from 3 until 7 p.m. in the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria at 828 I St. in Sacramento.
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For information, visit www.boem.gov/National-Program.
