MLPA South Coast Chair: California Would 'Benefit' from New Oil Rigs

MLPA South Coast Chair: California Would 'Benefit' from New Oil Rigs

by Dan Bacher

Only in Governor Arnold's Schwarzenegger's California would an official entrusted to "protect" marine resources call for new oil drilling off the California coast at a time when the biggest oil spill in U.S. history continues to devastate the Gulf of Mexico.

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association and the chair of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Task Force for the South Coast, recently affirmed her support for new offshore oil drilling in her commentary, "Gulf Oil Spill Comments," on the association's website, http://www.wspa.org.

Not only is Reheis-Boyd chair of the South Coast panel appointed by Schwarzenegger to design "marine protected areas" (MPAs), but she served on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Central Coast and currently serves on the Task Force for the North Coast.

"The tragic Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in California Governor Schwarzenegger’s withdrawal of his support for limited offshore oil development near Santa Barbara," lamented Reheis-Boyd.

"WSPA has not taken a position on specific offshore projects," she stated. "But we have been vocal about our views that California businesses and consumers would benefit from development of the huge reserves of petroleum off the California coast, in both state and federal waters."

Reheis-Boyd then goes on to tout the offshore oil operators in California for their exemplary "record of safety" and "sensitivity" to environmental issues, attempting to portray them as some sort of modern day John Muirs of the Sea, valiantly defending the ocean from atop their oil rigs.

"The record of safety established by offshore operators in California over the past 40 years has been excellent," she gushed. "But we recognize an incident on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico accident is going to influence the public policy debate on offshore oil."

"We don’t yet know what caused the accident in the Gulf of Mexico and whether or not there are any lessons to be learned that are applicable to the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf where most offshore oil production in California takes place today," she admitted. "We are waiting for the investigations to be completed."

She also claimed that "The petroleum industry on the West Coast has demonstrated a very high level of sensitivity to environmental issues associated with operating in a marine environment. We are committed to constant improvement in those operations."

"According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, in the past 40 years, more than 1 billion barrels of oil have been produced off the coast of California. During that time, less than 850 barrels of oil have been accidentally spilled into the ocean," she continued.

"The platforms off the California coast produce approximately 36 million barrels of oil per year – about 15 percent of our in-state petroleum production," she said. "Without those important sources of energy, we would need to import more crude oil in tankers. In many cases, that oil comes from less stable foreign sources and with resultant adverse economic consequences for California consumers.

"Oil exploration and production in California ranks among the most closely regulated activities in the world. There are literally hundreds of laws and regulations that govern petroleum industry activities in California. More importantly, though, is the fact that the men and women who work in the industry are committed to doing everything they can to ensure that workers, near-by communities and the environment are protected," Reheis-Boyd concluded.

Unfortunately, fishermen, environmentalists and the general public witnessing the largest oil spill in U.S. history devastate fishing communities throughout the Gulf of Mexico know that Reheis-Boyd's words are hollow in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon tragedy. We were repeatedly assured by oil company, state and federal officials that the Gulf oil spill was "under control." The oil industry in the Gulf is also regulated by federal and state laws, but these did nothing to stop the current disaster from taking place.

How can we believe anything that Reheis-Boyd or other representatives of the oil industry say after the BP Oil spill, which still continues unabated?

And what the heck is an oil industry official, who is now calling for new oil rigs off the California coast, doing on three task forces that are kicking fishermen, Indian Tribes and seaweed harvesters, the staunchest defenders of the ocean and the most vocal opponents of offshore drilling, off the water? Anybody with a modicum of reason, intelligence and common sense has got to realize there is something very, very wrong here!

Environmentalists, Indian Tribes and fishermen have blasted the MLPA Initiative for its numerous conflicts of interests, corruption and open violation of indigenous religious, cultural and subsistence fishing and gathering rights. There is no doubt that Schwarzenegger appointed Reheis-Boyd to safeguard the oil industry's interests in the MLPA process.

There is also no doubt that we need to support a complete ban on new drilling off the U.S. coastline to make sure that Reheis-Boyd doesn't get her way in opening the West Coast to new oil drilling.

"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," according to John Stephens-Lewallen, one of the North Coast's most respected environmental leaders and a foremost opponent of Schwarzenegger's MLPA corporate greenwashing process.

He said 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 Continental 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," he emphasized.

Congressman John Garamendi, who appeared last July at a rally at the State Capitol to speak out against the construction of the peripheral canal and the destruction of the California Delta when he was still Lieutenant Governor, 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," emphasized Stephens-Lewallen. "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."

The Stephens-Lewallens are urging the fishing community and others 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.

While an oil industry lobbyist and "marine guardian" like Reheis-Boyd calls for new oil drilling off the California coast, real environmentalists and defenders of the ocean like the Stephens-Lewallens call for support of Garamendi's bill. I join with the Stephens-Lewallens in urging everybody concerned about the fate of our public trust ocean waters to support Garamendi's bill - and at the same time to call for an immediate suspension of the widely-condemned MLPA Initiative.

Garamendi's simple bill contrasts with Schwarzenegger's Marine Life "Protection" Act Initiative, a privately funded process that does absolutely nothing to protect the California coast from oil spills, water pollution, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing. The initiative, led by executive director Ken Wiseman, is funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, headed by Michael Eaton, the foundation's executive director.

The MLPA, a landmark law passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, has been hijacked by oil industry, real estate, marine development and other corporate interests under the Schwarzenegger administration. Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative has openly violated numerous state, federal and international laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

For more information about the violation of indigenous subsistence, cultural and religious rights under the MLPA, go to: http://www.fishsniffer.com/forums/content.php?r=221 and Violet Wilder's facebook page, "KEEP THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES ACCESSIBLE FOR THE COASTAL TRIBES" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105945012781743).