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Since US president Donald Trump established the National Energy Dominance Council and instructed Interior secretary Doug Burgum to undo Biden’s ban on future offshore oil drilling, more and more bills have been put in front of Congress to ban fossil fuel drilling in one part of the country or another. The latest in a package of eight bills sent to Congress to protect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from fossil fuel drilling is a bill from representative Jimmy Panetta. The new bill, named the Central Coast of California Conservation Act, is looking to ban new offshore fossil fuel drilling along the coast from Monterey to Mendocino County. The bill would prohibit new exploration, development or production leases for natural gas or oil along the Central Coast and a portion of the North Coast of California. Panetta noted that the waters in question hold at least 26 marine mammal species, 94 seabird species, four sea turtle species, more than 340 fish species, thousands of invertebrate species, and more than 450 marine algae species. “California’s coast supports tourism, recreation, agriculture, fisheries, and shipping, contributing $44bn to California’s GDP each year,” he added. The Central Coast of California Conservation Act has also received support from many organisations and interest groups, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Defenders of Wildlife California, Oceana, the Natural Resources Defence Council, Save Our Shores, the Centre for Biological Diversity, and the Ocean Conservancy. Splash recently reported on Democratic Party representative Salud Carbajal reintroducing the California Clean Coast Act into the US Congress which is looking to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas leasing in areas of the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California. This bill was also followed by the West Coast Ocean Protection Act, introduced by senator Alex Padilla, and the Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism Anti-Drilling Act, introduced by senators Cory Booker and Jack Reed focused on California, Oregon, Washington state, the North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida Planning Areas of the US Outer Continental Shelf. Another similar bill was introduced by Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse and congressman Seth Magaziner, who are leading a bipartisan group of senators to ban offshore drilling along the coast of New England. New England consists of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. All of the states have representatives supporting the bill except Vermont. |
