AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET

The Trump Administration downgraded the potential economic value for increasing California off-shore oil drilling.

President Trump has signed a series of Executive Orders that directed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to speed up approval of permits for economically viable drilling for oil and gas on public lands. But Secretary Zinke commented on March 13 stated that California, Oregon and Washington do not appear to have off-shore “known resources of any weight” that U.S. energy companies are anxious to bid for.

The Trump Administration state on Jan 4 that their drive for American energy independence included streamlining the permitting process under the National Environmental Policy Act to require all federal, state and local agencies to conduct simultaneous ecology and the environment impact reviews.

The Interior Department’s 5-year drilling plan includes reversing Obama’s November 2016 move to finalize oil and gas exploration and development restrictions covering 94 percent of the U.S. outer continental shelf until 2022. According to Secretary Zinke:

“Look at the numbers in 2008. It was a banner year. The Interior was the number two revenue generator in this country. We made $18 billion alone in offshore drilling. In 2016 that number dropped to $2.6 billion. We lost $15 billion in revenue a year.”

In launching its 60-day comment period necessary to before vastly expand offshore drilling, Zinke sought to clarify that the Interior Department intended to propose America’s largest number of energy lease offerings that would cover including the Arctic, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and along certain parts of the Pacific Coast.

Although there are still two dozen offshore oil production platforms along California’s coast stretching from Santa Barbara and Orange County, no new offshore leases have been signed for federal or state waters since the disastrous 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.

CEO of the American Petroleum Institute Jack Gerard praised President Trump’s Executive Orders for also streamlining the permitting process for infrastructure projects that may include $1 trillion of new investment in building out Americas energy pipelines.

California Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has filed 25 lawsuits against the Trump Administration, pledged they will go to court again to protect California’s coastal communities. Brown thundered that California, Oregon and Washington are united do whatever it takes to stop “this reckless, short-sighted action.”

Brown added: “They’ve chosen to forget the utter devastation of past offshore oil spills to wildlife and to the fishing, recreation and tourism industries in our states. They’ve chosen to ignore the science that tells us our climate is changing and we must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. But we won’t forget history or ignore science.”

But Secretary of the Interior Zinke testimony before the Senate Energy Committee on March 13 seemed to downplay the economic potential for offshore oil and gas along the three West Coast states.

Although Zinke was blasted by Democrats, Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) lauded the Trump Administrations’ efforts to open the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas leases and exploration.