Daniel Weintraub: Don't expect new drilling off the coast anytime soon
It has been nearly 40 years since a well a half-mile beneath the Pacific off the shore of Santa Barbara blew a gasket, spewing 200,000 gallons of gooey black oil over 800 square miles of ocean and fouling 35 miles of coastline.
But even in a fast-changing world where memories are short, the Santa Barbara oil spill in January 1969 still stands as a vivid reminder of the risks from offshore oil development.
Californians don't forget when you mess with their beaches. And while an entire generation of voters has been born or moved here since that disaster, the spill and its consequences remain with us today.
That's why President Bush's move to lift a moratorium on new offshore drilling, as is his proposal to unleash more oil exploration on the outer continental shelf, is such a non-starter in California. The idea has already been condemned by the state's Republican governor, its Democratic legislative leaders and many of its representatives in Congress.
Environmental groups find it abhorrent.
"This is an absurd plan," Dan Jacobson of the group Environment California told me Monday. "It's like a junkie's promise for 'one last fix' before he quits."
Bush is trying to take advantage of public unease over the rising price of gasoline. If we can flood the world oil market with new supply, his thinking goes, we can bring prices down. Perhaps as the price of gas climbs toward $5 per gallon some people will be tempted to follow Bush's lead. But it will probably have to double again before Californians agree to more drilling off the coast.
That's how indelible the Santa Barbara spill became in the state's collective civic psyche. And the effect reached far beyond California's borders. The disaster is credited with helping to start the modern environmental movement. The first Earth Day was just a few months later, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was formed the following year....
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But even in a fast-changing world where memories are short, the Santa Barbara oil spill in January 1969 still stands as a vivid reminder of the risks from offshore oil development.
Californians don't forget when you mess with their beaches. And while an entire generation of voters has been born or moved here since that disaster, the spill and its consequences remain with us today.
That's why President Bush's move to lift a moratorium on new offshore drilling, as is his proposal to unleash more oil exploration on the outer continental shelf, is such a non-starter in California. The idea has already been condemned by the state's Republican governor, its Democratic legislative leaders and many of its representatives in Congress.
Environmental groups find it abhorrent.
"This is an absurd plan," Dan Jacobson of the group Environment California told me Monday. "It's like a junkie's promise for 'one last fix' before he quits."
Bush is trying to take advantage of public unease over the rising price of gasoline. If we can flood the world oil market with new supply, his thinking goes, we can bring prices down. Perhaps as the price of gas climbs toward $5 per gallon some people will be tempted to follow Bush's lead. But it will probably have to double again before Californians agree to more drilling off the coast.
That's how indelible the Santa Barbara spill became in the state's collective civic psyche. And the effect reached far beyond California's borders. The disaster is credited with helping to start the modern environmental movement. The first Earth Day was just a few months later, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was formed the following year....