Thursday, June 18, 2009

Victory Agaisnt Offshore Oil Drilling

As the statement below from Assemblymember Pedro Nava explains, we have prevailed (for now) in keeping out of the budget the Governor’s proposal to allow new drilling off the Santa Barbara Coast.

Assemblymember Nava worked this issue like I have rarely ever seen a legislator work, tirelessly lobbying his colleagues to reject the PXP drilling proposal.

Sierra Club California’s advocate, Michael Endicott, took the lead for the environmental community inside the Capitol, doing a great job of pointing out the flaws in the proposal.

Bill Magavern

Director

Assemblymember's Pedro Nava's statement

From the Capitol Weekly: Offshore oil drilling, once abhorred, gains in the Capitol

2 comments:

Unknown said...

To bad the Club got fooled by Nava's lying. Without Nava, we could have permanently banned oil drilling off our coast, but Nava wants to support his oil tax bill. Oh well. He's a slick operator.

Sierra Club California said...

This victory was a crucial one in which over 90 environmental groups joined us to defeat a bill that would have set a terrible precedent in which the Legislature would have gutted the process we have had for decades to approve or reject oil and gas leases in California for a single company. Even EDC, the strongest environmental proponent for the PXP project, opposed this legislation. Assemblymember Nava was a critical leading voice in the Capitol to maintaining the State Lands Commission's proper role and expertise in examining the public and "confidential" information the public cannot see when assessing the benefits and risks of oil and gas drilling in our state.