Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed legislation to strengthen California’s protections against offshore drilling amid escalating efforts by the Trump administration to open up the coast to new oil and gas operations.
The new state law, Assembly Bill 1448 from Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), will make it illegal for oil producers to use oil rigs, pipelines and other equipment currently in state waters to support any new federal offshore oil leases. It also strengthens state oversight of existing leases by requiring additional scrutiny and waiting periods for renewals, extensions or changes.
The law comes after the Trump administration proposed opening California’s entire coast to offshore oil and gas drilling for the first time in more than four decades — an action the U.S. Interior Department said will “unleash American offshore energy.”
The state has about two dozen aging oil platforms off its coast, but has not seen new oil leases in federal water since 1984, largely due to public opposition following a disastrous oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969.
“California has made it clear that our coast is not open for expanded offshore drilling,” Asm. Hart said in a statement. “As the Trump Administration continues its reckless push to expand fossil fuel production in federal waters, AB 1448 ensures that existing infrastructure in state waters cannot be used to facilitate those efforts.”
The White House has also challenged California’s control over its coast, ordering a review of the California Coastal Commission that could strip its authority over federal coastal projects.
The administration has also intervened on behalf of Sable Offshore, allowing the company to revive a long-dormant pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara despite objections from California officials and regulators. A July poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found 63% of voters in the state oppose more drilling off the coast.
Environmental groups applauded the bill’s passage Tuesday.
“California has drawn a powerful line in the sand to further defend the state’s right to protect its coast from federal offshore oil drilling,” said Joseph Gordon, campaign director with the nonprofit Oceana, which co-sponsored the legislation. “California’s beaches, coastal communities, and multi-billion-dollar economy depend on oceans free of oil spills, both now and for future generations.”
Brady Bradshaw, California advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, said the bill “gives our ocean and coast much needed protection.”
“This administration’s shameless attempt to industrialize the ocean has made it clear that we have to defend our wildlife and natural spaces with everything we’ve got,” Bradshaw said.
But producers in the oil industry said the move would backfire for California.
“There are significant offshore resources in existing leases that might be curtailed by the legislation,” said Rock Zierman, chief executive of the California Independent Petroleum Assn., in an email. “As a result, there will be more dirty, expensive foreign tankers off California’s coast, Sacramento’s preferred source of energy rather than energy produced by Californians under our strict environmental, labor, and human rights standards.”
Though the Trump administration said Pacific oil drilling will advance offshore energy in the U.S., the White House also struck a series of deals with offshore wind developers to abandon their projects along the coast of California, which would have generated about 6 gigawatts of new clean power.
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