Democrats have seized on the recent oil spill in California as an opportunity to renew calls for offshore oil drilling to be banned entirely, even though the oil-rich state already imports oil from elsewhere and the spill is smaller than previous ones.
On Friday, the oil began leaking from an undersea pipeline near an offshore oil platform south of Orange County– perhaps after contact with a ship’s anchor. Beaches were closed, and oil began washing up on the Huntington Beach shoreline on Sunday.
One expert suggested that the ship may have anchored there due to the ongoing backup at nearby cargo port facilities.
The spill, at 126,000 gallons, threatens local wildlife and maritime activities, and a massive cleanup effort is underway.
But the Los Angeles Times notes that “the size is still far less than several other catastrophic spills in the state and elsewhere.”
Nevertheless, Democrats are calling for all offshore drilling to be ended. Local State Sen. Dave Min (D) said in a statement:
The Orange County Oil Spill illustrates once again that offshore oil drilling is a bad deal for Californians. The revenues and jobs created by offshore drilling are miniscule in size compared to the negative economic impacts this creates. We must end all offshore oil drilling along California’s coast, including drilling performed under existing leases. I intend to introduce legislation doing just that.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) declared, “There is no offshore drilling that is truly safe,” and noted that he had already introduced legislation in Congress to ban all offshore drilling, which would end a significant portion of U.S. production.
Gov. Gavin Newsom added at a press conference on Tuesday in Orange County: “[I]t’s time once and for all to disabuse ourselves that this has to be part of our future. This is part of our past.”
As the state has made oil production in California more difficult, including offshore production, California has imported much more of its oil.
Oil imports to California have tripled in the last 20 years, despite the proliferation of state-imposed “green” policies.
Nearly 60% of the state’s oil comes from foreign sources, which a Forbes analyst recently called a national security threat to the U.S. as a whole.
Read more at Breitbart
Ayn Rand could not have written this self-destructive behavior by democrats any better than the reality they destroying
As always the Democrat/Globalists will cut off all use of Fossil Fuels all ove a totaly fake crisis of Global Warming/Climate Change its all about Globalism and Global Government all under the UN
There’s also onshore seepage along the coast plus areas inland where oil/tar seeps out onto the land. The most well known area is the La Brea Tar Pits.
Oil has tarred Santa Barbara beaches for centuries from offshore seepage. What happens to that?
In an obliquely related story, the gas storage field in Los Angeles which experienced a broken valve about 5 years ago, leading to several million tonnes of natural gas to leak across an upscale neighborhood, is now being urged by CA PUC to more than double its storage capacity just days after the gas company agreed to a $1.8B damage settlement with the neighborhood.
For all the enviro whacko drivel about shutting down all offshore drilling and ‘leave it in the ground’ chants, the powers that be know that sunshine and breezes cannot supply the energy needs for CA or any state for that matter. When Xiden is gone, we’ll ramp up American oil/gas/coal again, and hopefully accelerate conversion to nuclear power.
Good luck California. And today we find out, that something,probably an anchor caught the pipe and actually dragged it along the bottom. Probably a Russian or Chinese ship trying to flood America with its own oil !! I guess Calif. will just have to keep buying more solar panels from China. Tricky bunch, eh ?