House Votes to Open California Offshore Oil Leasing in 2012

House Votes to Open California Offshore Oil Leasing in 2012

by Dan Bacher

On May 12, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to open leasing for offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters off the California coast in 2012, according to John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, North Coast environmental leaders and sustainable seaweed harvesters.

HR 1231, which was approved by a 243-179 vote, requires the Interior Secretary to "make available for leasing any Outer Continental Shelf planning areas that: are estimated to contain more than 2,500,000,000 barrels of oil; or are estimated to contain more than 7,500,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas."

This provision, if passed by the Senate and approved by the President, would require lease sales in planning areas off the California Coast, including the Point Arena Basin planning area off the Mendocino Coast in Northern California.

"We’re asking everyone to join us in vocal opposition to this new effort to open leasing for offshore oil and gas drilling off the California coast next year," said John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen of Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company. "As edible seaweed harvesters, it is our duty to defend the rich, clean ocean waters of Northern California as a source of health-giving food for present and future generations.

The Stephens-Lewallens are among the fiercest opponents of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. John was the one who exposed the alarming fact that Catherine Reheis-Boyd, a member of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Central Coast, was a big oil lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association, a blatant conflict of interest, during the annual fisheries forum at the State Capitol in March 2009.

Reheis-Boyd, a strong advocate of new offshore oil drilling off the California coast, became the president of the Western States Petroleum Association in August 2009. She also became chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, as well as "serving" on the North Coast Task Forces.

The MLPA Initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, eviscerated the Marine Life Protection Act, a historic law that Governor Gray Davis signed in 1999. The initiative fails to protect the ocean from oil drilling and spills, water pollution, military testing, wave energy projects, habitat destruction and all other human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering.

Stephens-Lewallen, co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and the grassroots Seaweed Rebellion, has been a staunch opponent of offshore oil drilling for decades. He said that the MLPA Initiative not only fails to protect the California Coast from offshore oil drilling, but “paves the way for new offshore oil rigs.”

“The MLPAI divides coastal communities so we’re fighting against each over fisheries closures whereas we should working together to phase out offshore drilling and to put in place a massive conversion to sustainable energy,” emphasized Stephens-Lewallen. “The people running the process, privately funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, are interested in procuring ports and eliminating food providers so they can industrialize the ocean.”

“The corporate interests have allied with some preservationists in following a bogus theory of ecosystem management that says that people should be eliminated from the ocean ecosystem,” noted Stephens-Lewallen. “This paves the way for offshore drilling, since many of these preservationist organizations secure their funding from the ocean industrialists through the big foundations.”

Stephens-Lewallen questions whether the placement of these marine reserves has been designed to facilitate the development of offshore oil in the Point Arena Basin in Mendocino County. This is one of the areas the oil industry is most interested in exploring for oil – and is one of the greatest marine ecosystems, sustained by upwelling, on the West Coast.

“In March 2010, Reheis-Boyd assured the Fort Bragg City Council that setting up marine reserves had nothing to do with opening offshore oil drilling up,” he said. “But at same time, Reheis-Boyd and other members of the task force toured port facilities at the Albion and Noyo harbors where we suspect the oil industry could eventually install onshore facilities to be used in tandem with offshore rigs. The North Coast Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) seem designed to eliminate the fishing industry in the Point Arena area, since they bracket the harbor.”