LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR GARAMENDI CONGRATULATES CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY ON STOPPING OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING

SACRAMENTO - Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, chair of the California State Lands Commission, issued the following statement congratulating the California Assembly for defeating a proposal to sell the Tranquillion Ridge oil lease (PXP) for $100 million. The proposal would have hijacked the California State Lands Commission’s longstanding authority to grant new oil leases and opened the California coastline to offshore oil drilling for the first time since the Santa Barbara oil spill 41 years ago:

“I want to congratulate members of the California Assembly for having the courage to do the right thing by defeating the first new offshore oil drilling lease on the California coastline in more than 40 years. It was bad public policy and set a dangerous precedent, opening the door to offshore oil drilling in state and federal waters. The timing could not have been worse, because the federal government has expressed an interest in drilling off our pristine coast. Today, the California Assembly showed that they will not tolerate actions that will endanger our coast with a flawed drilling proposal. I cannot express enough thanks.”

In May, the State Lands Commission voted for a resolution to reject a Department of Finance proposal to bypass the SLC to permit oil drilling off the coast of California.

The State Lands Commission has had the authority to approve oil leases in California since 1938.


Background from January 29, 2009 State Lands Commission meeting

On a two-to-one vote in January, the State Lands Commission denied the first new oil lease in state waters in almost 40 years.
Garamendi, former Deputy Interior Secretary under President Bill Clinton, argued strongly that the plan would signal that California wants to open offshore drilling and supporters would push for more oil exploration on the West Coast.

“I refuse to let this lease move forward,” Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi said. “Approving a drilling proposal will undercut congressional efforts to reintroduce a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling earlier lifted by the Bush Administration.”

The Lieutenant Governor chairs the three-member State Lands Commission, which considered the request to lease land to the Plains Exploration & Production Company to expand drilling off the coast of California.

The Lieutenant Governor had earlier talked to members of the California congressional delegation who had significant concerns about the lease undercutting their attempts to reintroduce a federal moratorium on oil exploration off the coast.

The State Lands Commission’s staff last week recommended voting down the lease, because there were no sound guarantees that the company would have to shut down the plan.

An archived video and agenda of the meeting is available here: http://www.cal-span.org/cgi-bin/archive.php?owner=CSLC&date=2009-01-29.

by Office of Lieutenant Governor Garamendi -

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