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Drilling Defeated three times

Over the last few months California came perilously close to new drilling off the shore of Santa Barbara.

The governor reversed his long-standing opposition to drilling this summer. PXP, an out-of-state oil company, was putting pressure on legislators to pass a measure. The assembly voted down a measure, only to have it come up again in the very last days in the Senate.

Fortunately, we were able to hold off that vote, and protect our coast from drilling.

Thanks to those of you who took action and made phone calls.

Click here to see who voted for and against opening our shore to drilling.

Brief Summary

The oil lobby would like us to believe that after Katrina and Rita, we can drill our way out of our nation’s energy problems. But we know that opening our shores to drilling would only put our beaches and coastal waters at great risk for a small, short-term supply of oil. and gas. We can do better. If we allow offshore drilling, we’d still face a long-term energy crisis while our environment and economy would face new risks due to the pollution and potential for catastrophic spills off our coast. We need to tell our leaders in Congress to stop the rush to drill—and start pushing sensible choices like getting better gas mileage from our cars and trucks.

Oil Rigs: A Risk California’s Coasts Can’t Afford

Offshore drilling activities, which produce a steady stream of pollution, destroy kelp beds, coral gardens and coastal wetlands. A single offshore rig can drill between 50 and 100 wells, each dumping 25,000 pounds of toxic metals such as lead, chromium and mercury, and potent carcinogens like toluene, benzene and xylene, into the ocean. This pollution from drilling would cause health and reproductive problems for fish and other marine life.

We’ve seen how oil drilling can devastate our coastline – The infamous oil spill of 1969 spilled 100,000 barrels of oil off the Santa Barbara coast from one of Unocal's offshore platforms. Within days, the spill contaminated 800 square miles of water surface, stretching to the Mexican border. Millions of birds died, and fish stocks were decimated.

Accidents and operational violations have long been part of the industry. A catastrophic spill— one that could spoil the ecology and economic value of our state’s beaches for generations—is a real possibility.

We Have Cleaner, Safer Choices

Oil drilling proponents say we have no choice, given rising oil and gas prices. They’re wrong. If our cars and trucks got an average of a couple more miles per gallon, we’d save more oil than exists off the entire coast of California. Yet federal gas mileage standards haven’t significantly changed in 20 years. Instead of allowing oil companies to drill off our coast, Congress should be leading the fight in Washington for better gas mileage and clean energy.