The Hermosa Beach City Council unanimously voted at its Tuesday night meeting to back pending legislation in Sacramento that would curtail President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the coast of California and other states’ coastlines to new oil drilling.
The council directed staff to send a letter in support of Assembly Bill 1775 and Senate Bill 834, which would prevent the State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over the “tidelands” seaward of the median high-tide line, from permitting new leases for infrastructure needed for oil extraction, such as pipelines. AB 1775 is co-authored by South Bay Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi.
Other local elected officials, including Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand, have expressed support for the bills, but the issue carried special resonance for Hermosa, where three years ago voters overwhelmingly defeated a ballot initiative that would have reversed the city’s ban on oil drilling in the tidelands.
Mayor Jeff Duclos referenced Hermosa’s lengthy history with oil and said that the bill represented “a layer of protection” from the potentially “devastating effect” of an offshore oil installation.
“That 80 percent vote against oil was sort of the final act to release ourselves from the pressure of the thought that it could occur. That’s something that is difficult for communities to live under: just the threat that it could happen,” Duclos said.
On Jan. 4, the Trump Administration proposed a new Outer Continental Shelf National Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019 through 2024 that would open approximately 98 percent of the outer continental shelf to new drilling. (At the request of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke subsequently removed Florida from consideration, bringing the coastline total down to about 90 percent.) President Barack Obama had previously placed much of the nation’s coastline off-limits. Under existing regulations, about 6 percent of the nation’s coast, an area confined to the western and central Gulf of Mexico, is open to new drilling.
Andrew DeBlock, Muratsuchi’s senior field representative, said that the bill’s limits on oil drilling infrastructure were motivated by ongoing constituent concerns about the state’s coastline.
“In essence, the bill protects the environment. The Assembly member has heard time and again how important the beach and the coast are to people’s daily life, to their way of life,” DeBlock said.
DeBlock said the bill was motivated by how heavily dependent California’s economy is on the coast. As of 2014, California’s coast contributed about $2.1 trillion to the state’s $2.5 trillion gross domestic product, according to a study from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
The two pieces of proposed legislation are part of a continuing defiant stand by California’s state elected officials to the proposal. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has said that the state is willing to go to court to prevent the expansion of oil drilling.
Council members urged the community to make their voices heard on the issue. A link to offer comments on the federal drilling proposal is available on the city’s website. As of Jan. 26, the only meeting that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to hold in California is scheduled for Feb. 8 at the Tsakopoulos Library Gallery in Sacramento.
Closer to home, Muratsuchi’s office will host a town hall on the issue at Hermosa’s Community Theater on Feb. 16 at 6:30 p.m. And state Sen. Ben Allen, who represents the South Bay in the Senate, will hold a rally at the Santa Monica Pier on Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. with environmental organizations including Heal the Bay, the Surfrider Foundation and the National Resources Defense Council.
To submit a comment on the federal proposal, go to https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=BOEM-2017-0074-0001.
Note: the print version of this story incorrectly indicated that the BOEM was planning a public meeting on the revised leasing program for Southern California. In fact, as of now, the only meeting in the state is scheduled to take place in Sacramento.
