Bill banning oil drilling wins endorsement

WASHINGTON — A bill that would permanently bar oil drilling in the waters off Sonoma County could soon face a U.S. House vote after the measure won committee endorsement Wednesday.

The House Natural Resources Committee rejected an amendment that would have made it more difficult to regulate commercial and sport fishing in the waters, and passed the bill despite opposition from some committee members concerned about the nation’s sources of oil and gas.

“As we speak, the price of oil is $100 a barrel and gas is approaching $4 a gallon," said Rep. Henry E. Brown Jr., R-S.C. “I think we need to do what we can to become less dependent on foreign oil.”

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma seeks to roughly double size of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries off the coast of Sonoma and Marin counties.

Such a label would permanently bar oil drilling from the waters.

“I am not aware of any opposition to the bill by anyone in California who lives or works near these two sanctuaries,” Rep. Madeleine Z. Bordallo, D-Guam, told the committee. “To the contrary, it is supported by a broad range of fishing interests, local governments and the state.”

Opponents of drilling off the Sonoma County coast have worked for decades to keep oil companies out of the waters.

Richard Charter, government relations program manager for Defenders of Wildlife in Bodega Bay, said after the vote: “We have now gone further toward permanent protection than in anytime in the last quarter of a century."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, supports the bill. California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, have introduced Senate versions of the bill.

Woolsey did not attend the hearing because she is at home recovering from back surgery last week.