A Santa Barbara judge tentatively ruled that the Trump administration’s intervention wasn’t enough to let Sable Offshore restart a pipeline shut after a 2015 oil spill.
offshore oil drilling
Lookout news and Community Voices opinion coverage of Trump administration plans to open waters off the California coast to oil drilling.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Our coast can’t afford offshore drilling
In a letter to the editor, Morganna Johnson of Surfrider Santa Cruz outlines how disastrous offshore oil drilling could be for Santa Cruz County and California’s Central Coast and urges readers to oppose the proposed expansion.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Offshore oil threatens Santa Cruz County’s coastal economy — we must act now
Local business and fishing leaders Kristen Brown, Terrence Concannon and Melissa Mahoney warn that proposed offshore oil and gas leasing would endanger local tourism, fisheries and the region’s coastal identity. They urge the public to submit “negative nominations” to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management by Feb. 26 to protect federal waters off Central California from drilling.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County doubles down on opposition to federal offshore drilling plan
Santa Cruz County made its opposition to offshore drilling official, with a letter to the Interior Department and pleas to the public to get involved to stop the Trump administration’s move to drill off the coast of California.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Don’t risk our coast again: Say no to offshore drilling in Monterey Bay
OPINION: California learned the hard way that oil drilling and healthy oceans don’t mix, writes Dennis Kelso, a former UC Santa Cruz environmental studies professor who served as Alaska commissioner of environmental conservation during the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
‘This is the Super Bowl’: Consultant hired by county says Trump’s offshore drilling plans will test local ordinances
Richard Charter has been here before: In the 1980s, he was hired to organize an effort to block oil drilling off the coast of California. Now, with the Trump administration wanting to open the coast for drilling, he’s been hired to fight again by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California’s coastal ‘Blue Wall’ must rise again to stop new offshore drilling
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.
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.