In local politics, lots of issues divide. But there is no better way to unify than to suggest offshore oil drilling.
The Mendocino County Supervisors on Tuesday backed plans to extend offshore oil drilling bans until 2020 or longer if possible, cheered on by an audience that looked to be unanimous when a show of hands was made.
“I have never before looked at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors thinking warm and fuzzy thoughts” said Jonathan Shepherd, to smiling supervisors and a jovial crowd.
Moments before, the supervisors had been hearing acrimony over a matter involving the Mendocino Historical Review Board. That attitude changed when Richard Charter, chairman of National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition (OCSC), made a vivid PowerPoint presentation about current threats.
Charter started the presentation with a tale of a Boston couple he met whale watching who had eloped from a big wedding to get married in the dreamy place called Mendocino.
“The magic that is the Mendocino Coast is global in nature,” said Charter.
“This [the magic] is the heart of your coastal economy,” he said.
Charter described horror stories from offshore oil drilling such as the 1969 Santa Barbara spill and many in the Gulf of Mexico. Because of currents that flow both north and south, he said an Exxon Valdez-like spill could coat two-thirds of the California Coast and it could go on for months.
He described the “thin threads” of protection of the coast, including congressional, presidential, and the right of the state to find federal activities inconsistent with its coastal plan.
Charter discussed several bills, which could cut those strings by doing everything from rescinding current bans which last until 2012 to opening up the outer continental shelf to natural gas drilling, with no provision for dealing with oil discovered “accidentally” during gas drilling. He said the area from Bodega Head to the Lost Coast would be a prime target, as there are ocean sanctuaries to the south that are immune from drilling.
Charter said efforts in Congress to remove drilling protections are from inland states that “don”t have a dog in the fight.”
Charter has led efforts since the early 1980s to fight against offshore oil drilling nationally, along the entire outer continental shelf, rather than just off the most scenic spots like Northern California.
He asked supervisors to support two plans, one from a bi-partisan group in Florida and the other from California”s senatorial contingent that would ban offshore pre-leasing, leasing and what he termed virtually everything through 2020.
“Let”s do it,” said Supervisor Hal Wagenet as the presentation was coming to an end. There were cries from the audience of “let”s do it,” and cheers in support of an offshore drilling ban.
Northern California residents turned out by the thousands to oppose offshore oil drilling in 1988, when the last serious proposal was on the books.
Shepherd said he was a charter member of the 3:45 club, several hundred people ready to attack offshore oil drilling at a Minerals Management Service Hearing in 1988 ? at 3:45 a.m.
“We had 5,000 people come to a hearing and 1,400 sign up to speak, we had in fact, a filibuster against the Department of Interior. We changed the course of politics in this country,” said Rachel Binah.
“What we used to say in those days, was save the Kansas Coast,” said Binah.
“This treasure is precious not just to us but to the entire country,” she said.
The 1988 defeat of offshore oil drilling plans resulted in a presidential exclusion of drilling offshore beginning with President Herbert Walker Bush, followed by President Bill Clinton. The exclusion is under attack by Congress, not by the current President George Bush, Charter explained. He said Bush supports the ban staying in effect for another year.
John Lewellan discussed the efforts of the Ocean Protection Coalition, a local group that strives to “permanently protect the coast from offshore oil drilling.”
Supervisor Jim Wattenburger promised that he and Fourth District Supervisor Kendall Smith would take the resolution to Washington, D.C., and present it to Congressman Mike Thompson. Thompson was praised as a leader in the fight against drilling.
Supervisors voted unanimously to support U.S. Senate Bill S. 2239, a bipartisan proposal sponsored by Florida Senators Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson, that would codify and extend the duration of current offshore oil and gas leasing prohibitions now in effect until 2012, including those offshore Mendocino County, until 2020, and to also concurrently support U.S. Senate Bill S. 2294, sponsored by California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and its counterpart, HR 4782, sponsored by California Representatives Lois Capps, Mike Thompson, and others, calling for permanent protection from offshore drilling for the California coast.
