Beachgoers and tourists don’t want it. Fishermen don’t want it. Whales, dolphins, sandpipers and egrets — if they could talk — would no doubt balk. It’s bad for our health and the environment.
I’m talking about the Trump administration’s push to expand offshore drilling. Californians are a hard “no” on this backward-looking and dangerous idea. The Department of the Interior wants to hold up to 34 federal lease sales over five years, from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, including six off the coast of California. It’s a staggering, regressive proposition, spanning some 1.26 billion acres of ocean.
Californians know from experience: offshore drilling is not worth the economic, safety, and environmental risks.
We banned new offshore drilling in state waters over 20 years ago and haven’t had any new federal leasing since the 1980s because we’ve seen the costs of this risky practice firsthand. Californians know from experience that when you drill, you spill — beginning with the unforgettable Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 that unleashed over 3 million gallons of crude oil, and again with the Refugio State Beach Plains pipeline rupture in 2015, and the Huntington Beach spill in 2021.
We have seen local tourism businesses devastated, ports and beaches shut down, and wildlife habitats destroyed. When the popular Refugio State Beach closed, the tourism and recreation sectors swiftly lost more than $70 million.
And while the Biden Administration restored some drilling safety protections, originally adopted after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the current Trump administration is working to change those rules.
The California coast shapes our state’s identity. We treasure our stunning coastline for recreation, beaches, wildlife, seafood and tourism. Coastal tourism and recreation alone support more than 430,000 jobs and contribute more than $40 billion to the state’s economy annually.
Polling consistently shows that the vast majority of voters want our coast protected from offshore drilling, and it’s not a Democratic or Republican issue. More than 390 municipalities, including over 90 on the Pacific coast, have formally opposed expanding leasing.
It simply doesn’t make sense to pursue offshore drilling at a time when U.S oil production is at record highs. This is one more massive giveaway to Big Oil, which already holds leases on more than 11 million acres of federal waters, with only one quarter of those, at most, currently producing.
A plan that won’t yield oil for another 10 years will not lower prices for consumers now, and would lock in carbon emissions and air pollution for decades to come. It should go without saying that, in a climate crisis, the U.S. should pursue forward-looking renewable energy rather than repeating the fossil-fuel mistakes of the past.
The Trump administration must withdraw this proposal. This is not how we secure a better energy future.
The Trump administration has closed its 60-day public comment period and is quickly moving toward finalizing its proposal that would sacrifice California’s coast.
Californians, environmental groups, and over 100 legislators have overwhelmingly opposed this plan that risks oiling our waters, tarring our beaches, and jeopardizing the special lands and waters that we all hold in trust for our children, grandchildren and future generations.
Tasha Boerner represents District 77 in the California State Assembly. She lives in Encinitas.
