West Coast Senators Introduce Bill to Protect the Pacific Coast from Offshore Oil Drilling

[pinto]

Source: Press release from Senator Boxer

West Coast Senators Introduce Bill to Protect the Pacific Coast from Offshore Oil Drilling
Permanent Moratorium Would Protect Coastal Jobs in California, Oregon and Washington

Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced legislation today to permanently prohibit offshore drilling on the outer continental shelf of California, Oregon and Washington State.

The legislation would amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently protect the $34 billion coastal economies of the three states – which support nearly 570,000 jobs in California, Oregon and Washington.

Senator Boxer said, “We simply cannot afford the risk posed by oil drilling off our magnificent coast. Nearly 570,000 jobs and our vital coastal economy would not survive an environmental disaster like the one we’re seeing now along the Gulf Coast.”

“We must act to safeguard our precious coastal waters and end our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels,” Senator Cantwell said. “It is simply unacceptable to risk irreparable harm to our coastal communities, economies and ecosystems just to feed our oil addiction with a short-term fix – especially when new technologies are emerging that give us real alternatives.”

“Offshore oil drilling carries with it real risk. The voters of California have voted that they don’t want offshore oil drilling, and I don’t want offshore drilling. Now we know what the potential is for catastrophe and we have to see that it never, ever happens again,” Senator Feinstein said. “Therefore, I’m very happy to join with Senator Boxer and others on this legislation to permanently ban all new offshore oil and natural gas along the West Coast.”

“I’ve always opposed drilling off the coast of Washington. The current tragedy in the Gulf Coast is a painful reminder that we can’t allow drilling anywhere on the West Coast,” Senator Murray said. “The economic and environmental devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster is still impacting industry in our region, and we can’t allow it to happen again. Our environment and our economy are too important to risk, and this bill ensures that big oil companies can never roll the dice on the Pacific coast.”

“Two years ago the oil industry was riding high on choruses of ‘drill, baby, drill’ and they stripped away protections for the Pacific coast that would prevent Oregon from becoming a victim of the kind of catastrophic oil spill happening in the Gulf of Mexico,” Senator Wyden said. “This moratorium will restore those protections.”

“We are united in the principle that no oil drilling should occur off our shores,” said Senator Merkley. “The Oregon Legislature has acted to stop drilling off the coast up to three miles but they can only do so much. It is up to us in Congress to protect coastal jobs and Oregon beaches.”

The West Coast Ocean Protection Act includes clear language stating that “the Secretary of the Interior shall not issue a lease for the exploration, development, or production of oil or natural gas in any area of the outer Continental Shelf off the coast of the State of California, Oregon or Washington.”




Read more: http://boxer.senate.gov/en/press/releases/051310.cfm

[ladywnch]

1. Hot Damn! about time! now if they can only get it passed........... n/t

[Oregone]

2. Not in my backyard!

Why drill offshore when there is so much oil in the tar sands?

[sulphurdunn]

3. It's a good idea, but...

states don't have navies.

[Greyskye]

4. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

:shrug:

[Bette Noir]

5. ???????

This isn't a state proposal, it's national, and it wouldn't interfere with the operation of the US Navy on the West Coast.

[sulphurdunn]

12. I seriously doubt

that there will be a federal ban on offshore drilling and if some states attempted to ban it off their own coasts they'd need to go to war with the feds to do it. And, of course, they lack the naval power to do that. It was a joke.

[Bitwit1234]

6. Instead of wrangling over offshore drilling and drilling in Alaska they

ought to be able to try to find an alternative form of energy. Oil is going to run out and the world will be caught with it's pants down.

[diane in sf]

7. I'm still hoping for my plug-in hybrid diesel car, so I can charge it off a solar panel and put

old restaurant grease in the tank when I go past the 100 mile range. The day we don't have to buy gasoline to run our cars cannot get here soon enough. The technology is currently available--the will to change has been frustrated (but will not ultimately be blocked) by corporate bribes to politicians and wall-to-wall corporate media propaganda.

[depakid]

8. Obama's unfortunate tendency to pander to the right sure opened up a can of worms this time

That's one call you know the administration wishes it had back....

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. going to get themselves some windmills offshore?

[sam sarrha]

10. they are expecting an 8.5 to a 9.5 earthquake that may last 10+ minutes any time now. the last one

about 400 years ago.. making the next over due.. lifted Seatle 27 feet.. it is said when the big one, a Subduction quake, hits Seatle there wont be a building of any size left standing in Portland Oregon. Mount Baker is expected to erupt, maybe Mt Hood also.

not a good place to put an off shore rig. i met a driller that said he just drilled 7 oil wells and capped them in Silverdale 7 miles north of Olympia WA. in 1990. he said they are drilling and capping all over the PNW. he said the plan was to use up the arabs oil then sell ours at a premium, an that we have much more oil than they did. he was 74 years old and sail all he had ever done since he was 20 was drill and cap.. he said there were lots of teams out there do'n that. my nephew drills and caps natural gas wells all over the country.

[Scurrilous]

11. K & R

:thumbsup: