The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: offshore drilling
California Lawmaker Moves To Stop Oil-Drilling Project

California Lawmaker Moves To Stop Oil-Drilling Project

Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s been 45 years since a spill off Santa Barbara coated the picturesque coast with oil, killed wildlife, and prompted tough new pumping restrictions. But new worries have emerged in Sacramento.

It turns out that there was an exemption in a 1994 law that still allows drilling in a single portion of state-controlled, coastal waters. And a state lawmaker wants to immediately halt any possibility of drilling.

It’s no idle worry. There is a Northern California businessman with a project to lease land in Santa Barbara County, drill under the ocean floor, and pump oil from a place called Tranquillon Ridge.

To Bob Nunn, California oilman, developer, and farmer, his plan is safe, smart, and profitable. But not to state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat, who wants to stop the project before it gets started.

In June, she amended an unrelated bill to close what she called a loophole in California law that could allow drilling from an offshore oil field that’s partly in state-controlled waters off Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

Approval of her proposal would “end the conversation once and for all,” she said, and “make a statement from the people of California reaffirming their commitment to protect the coastline.”

It also comes as environmentalists push a local initiative, Measure P, to ban hydraulic fracturing and other controversial types of land-based oil drilling in Santa Barbara County.

Meanwhile, Nunn’s company — Sunset Exploration Inc. — and partner Exxon Mobil Corp. want to get at the Tranquillon oil by drilling horizontally under the ocean floor from land on Air Force property, not from an ocean platform.

To do that, they’ll need to obtain permission from a long list of state and federal agencies, beginning with the Air Force.

At issue is the 20-year-old law that banned new oil and gas production leases in state waters, which extend three miles out to sea from the beach. The California Coastal Sanctuary Act says “oil and gas production in certain areas of state waters poses an unacceptably high risk of damage and disruption to the marine environment.”

The act, however, contains a significant exemption: It allows the State Lands Commission, an obscure but powerful state agency, to approve a new oil-drilling lease.

To do so, a majority of the three-member panel must declare that oil under state waters is being drained by nearby platforms in adjacent federal government-controlled areas, farther offshore. Tranquillon is the only spot on the California coast that would be affected by the exemption, experts said.

The basin holds an estimated 150 million barrels of high-quality petroleum that could flow for as long as 30 years, according to a Lands Commission report.

A portion of oil in the state zone is being sucked into federal jurisdiction by pumps on nearby Platform Irene in federal waters. The siphoning is denying the state hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties, Nunn said.

That lost revenue could flow back to the state and local governments if new wells are drilled on land at Vandenberg, he said.

What’s more, Nunn contends, drilling from land is safer than platform drilling.

“We never intersect the marine environment,” he said. “We drill vertically approximately half a mile and then drill out under the seabed.”

A recently released Air Force “opportunity assessment” of Nunn’s proposal concluded that onshore drilling could be economically beneficial and less environmentally risky than offshore drilling. However, it also noted that environmental critics of both types of drilling have raised “valid concerns.”

Environmentalists want none of it.

“There are more than a dozen significant, unavoidable impacts to the environment. A lot are related to oil spills,” said Linda Krop, an activist attorney at the Environmental Defense Council in Santa Barbara. “The risks and the impacts are too great, and there are no benefits.”

These issues have been the subject of studies, environmental analysis, and political debate.

A 2008 environmental study concluded that “oil spill impacts for marine biology, marine water quality, and commercial/recreational fishing would be reduced but not eliminated” by drilling from land.

Those concerns are certain to be re-evaluated if Nunn and his partners move ahead. The Air Force, Santa Barbara County, the State Lands Commission, and the Coastal Commission all have a role in approvals before any drilling could begin.

Nunn pointed out the Lands Commission in 2009 considered — but rejected — a related plan that had widespread support from Jackson and local environmentalists.

The 2009 plan also sought to tap Tranquillon, but from the water at Platform Irene — not from the shore. In turn, the drilling company agreed to remove offshore platforms — as well as two onshore crude processing plants — by 2022. But the Lands Commission killed the deal by a 2-1 vote.

Nunn’s proposal is not worth the risk to Santa Barbara’s tourism, recreation, and fishing industry, Krop said.

That’s why Jackson says she’s in a rush to pass her bill. “We need to close that loophole,” she said, so there won’t be any question or attempt to expand drilling, whether on land or off land.”

AFP Photo/Karen Bleier

Interested in U.S. politics? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

House Approves Bill To Allow New Drilling Off California

House Approves Bill To Allow New Drilling Off California

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House on Thursday approved a long-shot bill to expand domestic energy exploration, including opening up areas off the West Coast to drilling.

The measure would require lease sales by the end of next year for energy production off Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, with production coming from existing offshore rigs or onshore-based extended-reach drilling operations.

It would also allow drilling off the Virginia and South Carolina coasts and expand energy production on federal land, including the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. It was approved on a largely party-line vote of 229-185.

In addition, the legislation would direct the Interior Department to develop a five-year plan that provides for exploration in coastal areas “considered to have the largest undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources,” including areas off California.

Offshore drilling enjoys support in Virginia and South Carolina, but it has long been controversial in California, where a 1969 spill off Santa Barbara devastated the coast.

Similar House-approved measures have died in the Senate, but House Republicans hope this bill, called the Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act, will gain greater support amid a rise in gas prices. At the very least, they hope to use the issue to highlight differences between the parties on energy policy before the fall election.

As the House debated the measure, 14 Democratic senators and one independent introduced legislation directing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates oil markets, to take emergency action to eliminate excessive oil speculation.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), assailed House GOP leaders for trying to “override the will of my constituents and California voters who overwhelmingly oppose new offshore drilling.” Capps’ district is based in Santa Barbara.

The California delegation broke along party lines, with Republicans supporting the measure and Democrats opposing it, except for Rep. Jim Costa (D), who backed the bill. Democratic Reps. George Miller and Grace F. Napolitano did not vote.

AFP Photo / Karen Bleier

Interested in U.S. politics? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Have We Learned Anything From The BP Oil Spill?

Following the first news of the BP oil spill in April 2010, the public sense of outrage and frustration spread as quickly as the 200 million gallons of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. But more than a year after the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Congress has not passed any legislation to address the safety gaps that led to the disaster. Meanwhile, offshore drilling in the Gulf has rebounded and returned to normal. A new government report about the spill might finally create stricter safety regulations to prevent another catastrophe, as drilling companies rush to take advantage of massive oil discoveries in the Gulf.

The government did temporarily halt deep-water drilling between May and October 2010, but the industry has since resumed operations without many additional regulations and safety standards. Recent deep-water oil discoveries in the Gulf this year have led to a spike in offshore drilling. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, offshore oil production from the Gulf accounts for 29 percent of total domestic crude oil production. Currently, 23 rigs are drilling wells in water deeper than 3,000 feet, which is the same number as two years ago. Even BP is getting in on the action, with two rigs under contract and a large stake in a recent oil discovery. Since the new oil is in deeply buried, highly pressurized rocks, the potential for accidents is great; however industry representatives argue that they have made some safety changes, such as building new deep-water containment systems that would prevent future spills.

In addition to these measures, environmentalists hope the new government report will lead to further regulations and standards. The report, released Wednesday after an investigation by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, placed ultimate responsibility for the spill on BP, saying the company violated seven federal regulations, disregarded safety, and did not take the necessary precautions in cementing the well. The BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion killed 11 people and affected countless others. Earlier government reports had been released, but this most recent investigation placed more blame on BP than the other companies involved in the rig, Transocean and Halliburton. According to AP,

The findings will be used to shape reforms in offshore drilling safety and regulation. They will also be used by lawyers for victims involved in court battles over the oil spill, and by government agencies considering charges and penalties.

“It is only a question of time before BP — along with Transocean and Halliburton — will face criminal charges for their roles in the Gulf oil spill,” said David Uhlmann, a University of Michigan law professor who formerly led the Justice Department’s environmental crimes section.

The new report recommends changes to offshore drilling, including requiring two barriers in a well and having more unannounced visits by regulators. Some Republican lawmakers said they would not adopt reforms until this federal investigation was complete, and congressional leaders have already scheduled hearings to discuss the report. More than a year after the spill, politicians might be finally convinced that there should be further regulations on offshore drilling to prevent another disaster.

The BP oil spill weighed heavily on President Obama’s approval ratings, and the slow response in creating new standards and recommendations might hurt him in the next election. The crisis marked a turning point in Obama’s presidency: According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, June 2010 was the first time more people disapproved of his job performance than approved, and half of people were unsatisfied with how he handled the spill. Even if the investigation leads to tougher regulations of offshore drilling operations, the BP spill will remain a dark spot on his presidency. Whatever the electoral ramifications, the new study gives hope, however belated, that the government will take a more active role in preventing another massive oil spill in the Gulf.