Oceana opposes Trump administration’s offshore drilling proposals

Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)

April 18-- Apr. 18--Oceana, the largest international advocacy organization dedicated to ocean conservation, accuses President Trump of working to weaken key safety and environmental protections currently in place, while also proposing to "radically expand" offshore drilling activities.

A report from Oceana, which has an office in Monterey County, released to the public Thursday comes just two days before the ninth anniversary of the explosion of the BP Deepwater Horizon, which killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

More than 200 million gallons of oil spilled over the 87 days it took to cap the well. The disaster wreaked havoc on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Since then, the Trump Administration proposes expanding drilling.

In January 2018, then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to offer new leases offshore of the West Coast, the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf coast and Alaska, saying the move would create jobs and was part of "a new path for energy dominance in America."

The Department of the Interior is in the process of completing a new draft of a proposed lease plan, which is expected to respond to public comments submitted last year.

The federal government shutdown temporarily suspended most work on the document, but once released it will prompt another 90-day comment period before further review.

"It's reckless and wrong," said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at Oceana, during a phone interview Wednesday. She added that it's Oceana's desire to see Trump halt efforts to rollback the few safety measures that were put in place following the BP disaster and to take all new areas of offshore drilling off the table.

She explained that there hasn't been an expansion of offshore drilling on the California coast in more than 30 years.

"We cannot afford another environmental catastrophe," Hoskins said.

She noted that oil from the BP incident in 2010 reached 1,300 miles off shoreline. However, even the Gulf communities the oil didn't reach were still hit with a decline in tourism and real estate values, among other impacts. Besides the 11 human lives that were lost, wildlife were also killed including sea turtles, dolphins and fish.

"This is a painful reminder of what's at stake," Hoskins said of the latest proposals.

These efforts include weakening the Well Control Rule that was enacted in response to the BP catastrophe by removing requirements for Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement-approved independent verification organizations; weakening real-time monitoring of offshore operations by on-shore monitors; and watering down testing requirements for critical safety devices like blowout preventers, Oceana reported.

The bureau estimates the proposed safety rollbacks will save the offshore oil and gas industry about $824 million for 10 years.

"Focusing on industry cost-savings, however, disregards the safety and environmental benefits the rule was intended to provide in the first place," according to Ocean's report. "Moreover, BP's estimated losses due to the Deepwater Horizon disaster amounted to more than $60 billion, or more than 70 times the estimated 10-year savings from decreasing safety standards.

"This focus on short-term cost savings to industry is shortsighted and does not ensure offshore drilling safety," the report continued.

"Less safety and more drilling is a recipe for disaster," Hoskins said in a prepared statement. "President Trump must drastically reverse course in order to prevent another BP Deepwater Horizon-like disaster. We should not be expanding dirty and dangerous offshore drilling to new areas when there's overwhelming bipartisan opposition. We should be strengthening safety, not further weakening the few safety measures currently in place.

"Coastal communities and our environment cannot afford another environmental catastrophe, which is where we are headed under President Trump's proposals," she continued. "It's time for President Trump to stand with coastal communities, not the oil and gas industry."

Oceana recommendations

Overarching issues with the regulation of offshore oil and gas operations continue to compromise safety and environmental protection, reported Oceana. Instead of weakening key safety measures already in place, Oceana said safety reforms should be implemented to prevent another environmental catastrophe.

Oceana made the following recommendations:

* President Trump should direct his administration to halt all efforts to expand offshore drilling

activities to new areas and abandon attempts to weaken safety regulations.

* BSEE should seek transformative changes to industry's safety culture through greater inspections and enforcement and by reducing reliance on industry-written standards.

* Congress must substantially increase financial penalties for safety violations to disincentivize dangerous, non-compliant behavior and ensure that risk-taking is no longer profitable.

* Congress must require accurate oil spill reporting, establish penalties for under-reporting, increase federal resources and research new clean-up technologies.

* The United States must shift to renewable energy sources like offshore wind.

Public input

Polling last July found California's registered voters broadly opposed to more drilling off the coast, with significant objections from Republicans as well as Democrats.

Overall, 66% opposed new rigs, including 82% of Democrats, 40% of Republicans and 66% of independents, according to the survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. Majorities of both coastal and inland voters opposed more drilling.

Oceana is expecting the revised federal proposal on the areas that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recommends for development to be released anytime now, at which point the 90-day public comment period would begin for people to express their opinions.

If the drilling does move forward, oil rigs would be erected in federal waters, 3 nautical miles off shore.

"That's cold comfort for coastal communities, oil spills don't respect those lines," Hoskins said.

Los Angeles Daily News contributed to this report.

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