California Gov. asks president to permanently ban new offshore drilling in his state
At a conference this week in his state, California Governor Edmund G. Brown doubled down on his actions to affect climate change. “Today, California is taking additional steps to … boost renewable energy and prevent further coastal oil and gas drilling.”
Brown sent a letter to President Obama on Dec. 13 asking the president to permanently withdraw federal waters off the coast of California from new offshore oil and gas leasing to guarantee that future oil and gas drilling on the California outer continental shelf is prohibited.
“Clearly, large new oil and gas reserves would be inconsistent with our overriding imperative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and combat devastating impacts of climate change,” Brown said in his appeal to the White House.
Governor Brown does, however, want to develop offshore clean energy projects in conjunction with the Department of Interior, creating energy from wind and waves off the California shore.
California’s existing offshore production facilities
According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), an agency that regulates oil and gas leasing activity on the federal outer continental shelf (OCS) for the Department of Interior, in the Pacific OCS Region, twenty-three oil and gas production facilities have been installed in federal waters. All of these facilities are located off the coast of California.
Twenty-two of these facilities produce oil and gas, while the other is a processing facility, according to BOEM. Six companies operate offshore oil and gas facilities in California’s OCS:
Beta Operating Company, LLC
- Platform Ellen
- Platform Elly
- Platform Eureka
Venoco, Inc.
- Platform Gail
- Platform Grace
ExxonMobil Corporation
- Platform Harmony
- Platform Heritage
- Platform Hondo
Pacific Operators Offshore LLC
- Platform Hogan
- Platform Houchin
Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas LLC
- Platform Harvest
- Platform Hermosa
- Platform Hidalgo
- Platform Irene
DCOR, LLC
- Platform A
- Platform B
- Platform C
- Platform Edith
- Platform Gilda
- Platform Gina
- Platform Habitat
- Platform Henry
- Platform Hillhouse
In November, BOEM released its final decision for OCS lease sales for the upcoming six-year period. No lease sales were proposed for the BOEM’s Pacific region in the 2017–2022 program development process. Brown had requested that California be excluded from lease sales in the 2017-2022 program, and his wish was granted. This week’s request from the California governor is for a permanent ban of new offshore drilling in his state.
