Updating and expanding laws blocking offshore oil drilling and seabed mining is the most powerful tool communities have to protect California’s coast in the face of the federal government’s new drilling plans. Katie Thompson and Dan Haifley urge the public to get involved.
offshore oil drilling
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County officials mobilize resistance as Trump administration opens California coast to offshore oil drilling
The Trump administration confirmed Thursday that it plans to open the California coast to oil drilling, with two possible leases along the Central Coast. Local officials tell Lookout they’re organizing to fight offshore oil extraction with lawsuits.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
An oil company running into rough waters off the California coast is looking to Trump for help
A vote by Santa Barbara County supervisors to deny Sable Offshore permits to restart production builds on a series of lawsuits and an accusation of insider trading, but the CEO wants President Donald Trump to help it overcome its setbacks.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County officials reviving a statewide coalition to block Trump’s offshore oil drilling plans
Santa Cruz County elected officials and activists are trying to reopen a playbook that helped safeguard Monterey Bay from offshore drilling in the 1980s amid Trump administration plans to restart oil and gas leases off the California coast as early as 2027.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Protesters to rally at Coastal Commission meeting in Santa Cruz to block SoCal offshore drilling plans
Protesters are planning a rally outside a California Coastal Commission meeting in Santa Cruz on Wednesday to oppose efforts by a Texas company to restart an offshore oil and gas pipeline in Santa Barbara County a decade after it ruptured, causing a damaging oil spill.
Posted inEnvironment
Push to limit California offshore oil after O.C. spill threatened by high taxpayers costs
Senate Bill 953, a proposal that cleared its first hurdle Tuesday, would allow the State Lands Commission to terminate some offshore oil leases by the end of 2024.
Posted inEnvironment
Huntington Beach oil spill inspires legislation to ban California offshore drilling
The legislation would affect 11 existing oil leases, all off the Orange and Ventura County coastlines.
Posted inEnvironment
How a coast crowded with ships, port gridlock and an anchor might have caused O.C. oil spill
A final determination for the cause of the spill could take months, but Coast Guard investigators have come up with no other explanation than anchor drag, federal sources said.
Posted inEnvironment
Oil spills have marred the California coast — and shaped our politics
California’s distaste for offshore drilling dates back to the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Here’s a recap of how the state has led the charge against the practice ever since.
Posted inCoast Life
She fell in love with Santa Cruz beaches as a kid, then guarded the coast for more than four decades
Most people don’t know her, but Susan Hansch has been quietly saving the California coast for more than 46 years. Her love of the ocean began right here in Santa Cruz, first as a child and then at UC Santa Cruz.