The Valley Chronicle - Padilla, Schiff, Carbajal Lead California Lawmakers in Push to Protect California Coast From New Oil Drilling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.), along with U.S. Representatives Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), and Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), led 31 of their colleagues in condemning the Trump Administration’s plan to develop new offshore oil and gas leases in the Southern and Central California Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) planning areas. They also pushed President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to extend the current public comment period by 90 days.

The Trump Administration’s plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years, disregarding bipartisan opposition.

“California’s coastal economy supports roughly 511,000 jobs and generates over $51.3 billion in GDP from marine-economy activities — largely in tourism and recreation — meaning that new offshore drilling could jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of working families,” wrote the lawmakers. “The 2015 Refugio oil spill and the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill further underscored the ongoing risks of offshore drilling and reinforced our strong opposition to any expansion of offshore oil and gas development.”

The lawmakers also highlighted the risks offshore oil and gas development off the Southern and Central California coast pose to military readiness.

“Introducing additional offshore drilling infrastructure and associated hazardous materials into this already congested and mission-critical maritime space would increase operational risk, complicate training and testing activities, and heighten the potential for catastrophic consequences in the event of a spill—placing both military personnel and national security interests at unnecessary risk,” continued the lawmakers.

The lawmakers concluded by emphasizing that concerns over the Administration’s leasing plan are shared across party lines, and they urged the Administration to extend the current public comment period. They emphasized that California constituents submitted hundreds of thousands of comments over the 60-day public review of the five-year offshore leasing plan that closed January 23, with many comments expressing direct concerns with the impact of federal oil and gas leasing in the Pacific on coastal ecosystems and local economies.

“The administration’s leasing plan is a significant concern to Californians regardless of political affiliation, as both Democratic- and Republican-led cities have passed resolutions opposing new drilling in the Pacific,” concluded the lawmakers. “… For these reasons, we respectfully request a 90-day extension of the current public comment period on offshore oil and gas leasing in the Southern and Central California OCS Planning Areas. An extension will ensure that residents, local governments, Tribal Nations, small businesses, fishermen, environmental groups, and other stakeholders have adequate opportunity to review the proposal and submit comprehensive feedback that reflects the breadth of impacts this decision would entail.”

California’s push to limit new offshore drilling dates back to 1969, when an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, blanketing beaches with a thick layer of oil and killing thousands of marine mammals and birds. That disaster remained the nation’s worst oil spill until the Exxon Valdez incident two decades later. More recently, incidents like the 2015 Refugio State Beach and the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spills have underscored how risky additional offshore drilling can be for coastal communities.

Senator Padilla has been leading the charge against offshore oil and gas leases. Last December, Padilla and Representative Huffman led 26 members of the California Democratic Congressional delegation in condemning the Trump Administration’s official draft 2027-2032 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that includes six lease proposals off the coast of Northern, Central, and Southern California. Immediately after the Trump Administration’s sell-off to Big Oil was announced, Padilla and Huffman issued a joint statement and hosted a press call slamming the move. The month before, Padilla and Huffman led over 100 lawmakers in demanding President Trump and Secretary Burgum immediately cease any plans to open new offshore oil and gas leases in U.S. federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf.

On Earth Day, Padilla and Huffman, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Representative Frank Pallone (D-N.J.-06), announced a pair of bills to permanently protect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the dangers of fossil fuel drilling. Padilla and Huffman’s West Coast Ocean Protection Act would permanently prohibit new oil and gas leases for offshore drilling off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington. In 2021, Senator Padilla joined West Coast Senators in calling on Senate leadership to include the West Coast Ocean Protection Act in the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill after an estimated 126,000 gallons of oil spilled off the coast of California.