Garamendi's Offshore Drilling Ban Bill Needs Support

Garamendi's Offshore Drilling Ban Bill Needs Support

by John Lewallen, Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company, May 27, 2010

The tragic catastrophe spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico offers a rare opportunity to achieve long-term protection from this nightmare for the rich upwelling ecosystem off the Pacific Coast of Washington, Oregon and California.

Companion bills to "permanently" ban new offshore oil and gas drilling off the Pacific Coast of the three states have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The "West Coast Ocean Protection Act of 2010" is a one-page bill with only one effective provision: "...the Secretary of Interior shall not issue a lease for the exploration, development, or production of oil or natural gas in any area of the outer Contintntal Shelf off the coast of the State of California, Oregon, or Washington."

My wife Barbara and I are asking organizations of ocean food providers to formally endorse this simple and powerful bill, and work to get it signed into law this year.

Congressman John Garamendi is spearheading the bill in the House, with Representatives Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey of Northern California among 35 initial co-sponsors. Group endorsements can be emailed to Marcus Woodson in Congressman Garamendi's office ; or by phone at (202)225-1880.

For ocean food providers, the stark simplicity of this drilling ban is its beauty. In one simple statement, it removes the great threat we all face to the purity of the Pacific Coast Upwelling Ecosystem and its renewing abundance of food.

Bills with similar wording have been introduced, with heroic pronouncements, in the last several annual sessions of Congress, only to languish in committee without any legislative action.

We're asking the fishing community to help make this year different by contacting your federal representatives, and friends throughout the country, in support of the West Coast Ocean Protection Act of 2010.

--Barbara and John Stephens-Lewallen, Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company