AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET, NEWPORT BEACH, CA

The Trump Interior Department’s plan to sell off-shore oil and gas drilling rights is an effort to make California pay for being the largest beneficiary state for federal spending.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s release of a proposal on Jan. 4 to sell federal rights to drill for oil and natural gas in all United States off-shore waters was met with extreme anger and threats by California’s Democrat-leadership and their environmentalist allies.

Gov. Brown demanded an immediate state drilling moratorium; while California Attorney Gen. Xavier Becerra threatened to file his 25^th lawsuits on behalf of progressive Democrats against the Trump Administration in the last 11 months. Both Democrat Senators and all 40 Democrats out of California’s 53 U.S. House seats oppose drilling.

It should not be surprising the Trump Administration is advocating off-shore oil drilling as its first initiative after passing the ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’ on the promise that lower corporate tax rates would stimulate U.S. domestic investment and drive higher federal tax collection. According to Forbes, the oil industry paid the highest combined federal, state and local tax rate at 45 percent, versus an average U.S. corporate tax rate of 24 percent.

With 5 percent of America’s proven reserves, California has been actively engaged in off-shore oil production since 1896. There currently are 24 drill rig platforms off California’s coast, with most around the Santa Barbara Channel. After the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill, Congress issued moratoriums against off-shore drilling until 2008.

Exxon that year proposed drilling wells in Santa Barbara County’s Tranquillon Ridge field. To avoid California jurisdiction, Exxon planned to drill directionally from their existing off-shore Irene Platform in federal waters and onshore from Vandenberg Air Force base.

With California on the verge of bankruptcy in 2009, Gov. Schwarzenegger and several environmental groups supported limited state off-shore oil drilling. But the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico disaster caused Schwarzenegger to pull his support.

With untapped off-shore reserves of 3.42 billion barrels, the international price of oil over $69 a barrel, and the cost of building an off-shore platform averaging $650 million; the Trump Administration sees California drilling as key to their investment and tax boom.

California’s overwhelmingly liberal political leadership complains that the state is already a donor to the U.S. government, because it only ranks 38^thout of 50 states, with just 15.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) coming from the feds, versus a national average of 18.3 percent, according to a Pew Research.

But California in 2013 was ranked as the #1 recipient for total U.S. federal spending with $343.7 billion, over $109 billion more than #2 Texas at $234 billion. For every $1.00 California residents paid in federal taxes, the state received $1.18 in federal spending.

Public Policy Institute of California polling has seen opposition for off-shore oil drilling along the state’s 1,270-mile shoreline consistently rise from 43 percent in 2009, to 73 percent in 2017.