WASHINGTON —Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) slammed the House Republican leadership’s transportation bill, the so-called “Energy Security and Transportation Jobs Act” (H.R. 3410), which would mandate new oil and gas drilling in the federal waters off Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, her office reported Friday in a media release.
The bill would also require new drilling in protected areas along the East Coast and in the waters off Alaska, as well as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The legislation, which was approved by the Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 1, is expected to be considered by the full House of Representatives later this month.
The legislation was offered by Republican leaders as a way to partially fund their transportation bill, Capps said. The current shortfall in America’s transportation funding is projected to be $50 billion over the next five years, based on the new Republican bill. Yet opening up America’s East and West Coasts and Arctic Refuge to drilling would produce only about $5 billion in revenue over the next ten years, far less than the expected shortfall.
“Once again, Republican leaders in the House are more interested in scoring political points than creating jobs,” Capps stated in the release. “Everyone knows that mandating new offshore drilling won’t bring in much money, and it will only endanger our coastal economy and environment. In addition, attaching these anti-environment provisions will make it impossible to pass a transportation bill, historically bipartisan legislation that creates good jobs.The people of the Central Coast are tired of these political games. They have indicated time and time again their opposition to new oil drilling. And they want us to work together on legislation to fix their roads and bridges and create the jobs that go along with building both.”
In addition to requiring new oil drilling off the Central Coast, the legislation would remove California’s authority under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) to review any new offshore drilling activities, as well as undercut the important public and environmental review process of offshore drilling activities under National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Capps reported. Both the CZMA and NEPA were enacted following the 1969 oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast.
“Gutting the laws our state and community have used to protect our sensitive coastline from the kinds of environmental and economic devastation the BP spill brought to the Gulf of Mexico might be good news for oil companies but it’s bad news for the Central Coast,” Capps said. “And cutting environmental reviews and muzzling Central Coast residents from raising legitimate complaints about offshore drilling in their back yard is outrageous. I will work to get these ridiculous provisions out of the bill.”
Letters opposing this legislation from the California Coastal Commission and California Natural Resources Agency are also available.