Close to Home: Protect our coast by passing SB 788

As Californians, we cherish our magnificent coastline, which is an enduring source of enjoyment, inspiration, rejuvenation and a thriving coastal economy. The pictures and videos of the Santa Barbara oil spill are heart wrenching - the images of oil-soaked pelicans and oil-blackened beaches are a real-time nightmare.

We should seize the opportunity to turn this awful oil spill into better safeguards for our coast and ocean.

When oil is transported, whether by pipeline, rail or tanker, spills and disasters are inevitable. One definitive way to reduce their occurrence is to preclude new offshore oil drilling.

The state Lands Commission currently has authority to issue a new lease for oil or gas exploration in state waters in the Santa Barbara Channel, and oil developers are eager to drill. In 1994, the state Legislature passed the California Coastal Sanctuary Act, which prohibited all future oil drilling in state waters, but it included a loophole for the Tranquillion Ridge oil field off Santa Barbara’s coast.

Fortunately, we have the chance right now to close this loophole. Senate Bill 788 by state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, would remove the commission’s authority to enter into a new lease for oil or gas extraction in state waters off the Santa Barbara coast. The proposed drilling area is now a state marine reserve.

SB 788, the California Coastal Protection Act of 2015, would not cost taxpayers any existing revenue. However it would prevent adverse environmental impacts associated with offshore oil production. In 2009, an offshore oil drilling plan was submitted under this loophole, but the required environmental review revealed that the drilling plan would create at least 12 major adverse environmental health impacts. Unfortunately, that has not stopped big oil interests, as they have submitted another plan to drill that is currently under consideration at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

There are numerous disadvantaged communities in the impacted area whose youth and residents would inevitably suffer from new oil drilling.

SB 788 would help safeguard our communities from adverse health impacts associated with coastal drilling, protect our state and federal marine protected areas and their rich biodiversity and support the transition to a clean, green energy future. Also, SB 788 would help ensure that our $40 billion coastal economy does not suffer the devastating consequences of yet another spill.

In addition to illustrating the need for SB 788, some lessons are already emerging from the Santa Barbara spill even though the full cleanup will not be completed for months.

In California, we should empower the local stewards of our bays and sensitive areas, like fishermen and women, to engage in the cleanup effort in the event of an oil spill. In Prince William Sound, Alaska, for example, fishermen and women are an integral part of the oil spill response plans and drills.

They receive paid training to deploy ocean-going booms and other response equipment that better safeguard fish and marine wildlife habitat in the event of a spill. This makes good sense, because when spilled oil hits the water, local fisheries are closed.

Fishermen, who best know the local bays, inlets, currents and sensitive areas, could become an essential part of the response effort. On the North Coast, this practice could prove beneficial, but spill response regulations in California do not incorporate this type of community response. We should consider it going forward.

While we can’t put the spilled oil in Santa Barbara back in the ground, we can heed the lessons from this oil spill disaster. Let’s start by passing the California Coastal Protection Act of 2015 and say no to offshore oil drilling in our waters.

Amy Trainer is executive director of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin.