PD Editorial: Permanently ban oil drilling along the West Coast

Think about your favorite spot on California’s coast.

Now imagine it with oil rigs dotting the horizon.

It isn’t a pretty picture, is it?

Fortunately, much of the Golden State’s scenic coastline is protected from offshore gas and oil development. Since the expansion of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in 2015, offshore drilling is prohibited from Point Arena in Mendocino County south to Cambria in San Luis Obispo County - a stretch of about 275 miles.

President Barack Obama has the legal authority to put the rest of California’s 1,100-miles of coast off limits to offshore drilling, and he should do so before leaving office in January.

North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman and all six senators representing California, Oregon and Washington are calling on Obama to use his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently withdraw the West Coast from consideration for new oil and gas leasing.

“I am urging the administration in its final weeks to think big and think permanent,” Huffman, D-San Rafael, told Staff Writer Guy Kovner.

In a letter dated Nov. 16, the senators warned Obama that “opening up the coast to more fossil fuel development poses a threat to our oceans and the coastal economies that depend on them.” “We appreciate your administration’s ongoing commitment to keep new West Coast lease sales off of the table,” they said. “However, without a permanent withdrawal, we cannot be certain that the coastline would not see new oil and gas development in the future.”

Donald Trump’s name didn’t appear in the letter, but their fear is that the president-elect intends to open the coast to oil exploration.

They have good reasons to fear, beginning with Trump’s skepticism, if not outright denial, of climate change. There’s also his vow to cancel the Paris climate accord with its cap on greenhouse gas emissions and his promises to step up production of fossil fuels.

But this isn’t strictly an environmental issue. Scores of coastal communities rely on fishing and tourism, which produce $44 billion of economic activity annually and support 650,000 jobs in California, Oregon and Washington. A major oil spill would be disastrous.

The Obama administration has taken one post-election step to restrict offshore oil and gas development - banning drilling in the Arctic for at least five years. A new five-year leasing program announced this month by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell offers some new areas for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico but blocks any new activity in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, remote and environmentally sensitive areas that the Interior Department had considered leasing over the objections of conservation groups.

California and its West Coast neighbors have been among Obama’s most enthusiastic allies in trying to check human contributions to climate change, enacting programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and public reliance on petroleum. The president can reward that support by permanently protecting the Pacific Coast from oil development.