Thumbs down: Offshore oil ‘hearing’ that wasn’t

Even before the Trump administration announced plans to open up coastal areas to offshore oil drilling, polls showed seven out of 10 Californians dislike the idea.

Some 700 of those who are opposed showed up in Sacramento on Thursday to protest the plans as U.S. Department of the Interior officials held the only public hearing planned on the offshore leases proposal. But even the so-called public hearing wasn’t a true hearing. Officials from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management merely met and answered questions from the public and provided access to computers where the public could post their comments. There was no public testimony. State Sen. Mike McGuire, who met with the protesters, many of whom came from Sonoma County, called the event a “sham hearing.” A sham, much like the drilling proposal itself.