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California leaders blast Trump’s ‘idiotic’ plan to kickstart offshore oil drilling
Since a massive 1969 oil spill, very little oil has been drilled off the California coast, though some rigs remain, such as this one about a mile and a half away from the Seal Beach pier.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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The Trump administration on Thursday released its plan to open up federal waters off the coast of California to oil drilling, taking a momentous step that state leaders and environmentalists had long expected.
The Interior Department’s proposal, which sets up a direct confrontation with Sacramento on energy and climate change, would also allow drilling in federal waters off the coast of Alaska and the Southeastern U.S. It would rip up a ban on new offshore drilling in most of these places that President Joe Biden signed a few weeks before he left office.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order repealing that ban on his first day in office in January, and last month, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Biden had overstepped his authority.
Administration officials argued that the move to open federal waters to new oil and gas leases will help restore energy security and protect American jobs.
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“By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release.
Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said the plan would be “dead on arrival” and promised attendees at an international climate conference last week that California would immediately sue.
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On Thursday, his office quickly blasted the proposal as “idiotic” and “reckless.” He added that it “endangers our coastal economy and communities and hurts the well-being of Californians.”
Companies have drilled very little oil off the coast of California since the 1969 Union Oil platform blowout spilled 4.2 million barrels of crude into the waters 6 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, catalyzing an environmental movement.
Newsom’s press release included a photo of a bird covered in crude oil, with a caption that said, “If Trump gets his way, coming to a beach near you soon!”
Numerous California lawmakers, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jared Huffman, hastily convened a media call to push back on the plan.
Padilla called it “another outrageous announcement” from an “out of control administration.”
Rep. Jimmy Panetta compared the proposal to Trump’s controversial renovation of the White House.
“The California coastline is not the East Wing of the White House,” he said.
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The Democratic lawmakers are supporting legislation that would prohibit new oil and gas leases off the West Coast.
The public will have a 60-day window to comment on the plan when it appears in the Federal Register on Monday.
About this article
KQED is a public media organization based in San Francisco and an LAist partner. This article originally appeared on KQED.org.
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