Permanent Offshore Oil, Gas Ban Sought

State Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) has introduced legislation that seeks to create a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas development in California waters.

If approved as submitted, Assembly Bill 2444 would make permanent an already existing oil and gas leasing moratorium that is set to expire in 1995.

Under O’Connell’s proposal, oil leases in existence before the Legislature issued its temporary moratorium in 1991 would still be allowed to be developed.

State Lands Commission officials said there are 79 oil and gas leases in an estimated 106,000 acres of water. If no additional leases are developed, about 2.8 million acres would be protected by the moratorium.

“Many people believe the only way to prevent these kinds of environmental disasters is to prevent oil development in sensitive waters altogether,” O’Connell said. “Our society needs oil, but it should not be produced at the expense of our coastal development and quality of life.”

But Terry Covington, a spokeswoman for the Western States Petroleum Assn., said O’Connell’s bill would further the country’s dependence on imported crude oil, among other problems.

“Our consumption of oil is not dropping,” Covington said. “Every barrel of oil that’s not produced in California is supporting some other state or country.

“What’s more, at a time when the state economy is in a downturn, the bill would shut off new oil and gas royalties to the state and limit the number of jobs that could be opened.”

Covington added that the state’s offshore oil and gas companies have had an excellent safety record since Unocal’s 1969 platform blowout.

That blowout spilled millions of gallons of crude oil on beaches throughout the Santa Barbara Channel.

The bill, which was introduced by O’Connell on Jan. 4, would cover oil and gas leases in state waters, which run from the mean high tide line to three miles out.