[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 76 (Tuesday, June 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H3425-H3426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CALIFORNIANS, LIKE FLORIDIANS, WANT TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT FROM 
                           OFFSHORE DRILLING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago, President Bush 
proposed to buy back undeveloped oil drilling leases off the coast of 
Florida and in parts of the Everglades. The President cited 
considerable local opposition to new drilling in Florida as a prime 
reason for this decision. I fully support this bold step to protect the 
environment and the economy of Florida. And while the vast majority of 
Californians were very pleased with this action, we were left asking, 
what about California? Why can the Federal Government not take similar 
action on the 36 undeveloped leases off Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San 
Luis Obispo Counties that we have been trying to terminate for years?
  Last week, Interior Secretary Gale Norton supplied the answer. 
According to the Secretary, a major difference between Florida and 
California is that Florida opposes coastal drilling and California does 
not. As the U.S. representative for Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo 
Counties, and a nearly 40-year resident of the area, I was dumbfounded 
by this assertion.
  My local paper, the Santa Barbara Newspress, editorialized today 
about what it calls Secretary Norton's ``jaw-dropping'' remarks asking, 
``What alternative universe is Ms. Norton living in?"
  Mr. Speaker, I lived in Santa Barbara in 1969 when a huge blow-out on 
Union Oil'S Platform A put 4 million gallons of oil into the sea. The 
oil spill killed thousands of seabirds, seals, dolphin, fish and other 
sea life. It damaged for years a huge swath of the beautiful coast of 
Central California. The devastation was so great it galvanized Central 
Coast residents; indeed, it galvanized virtually the whole State 
against offshore drilling.
  Clearly we were outraged by the damage to the environment and the 
wildlife. But we also realized that another blow-out could wreak havoc 
on our economy as well, especially tourism, fishing, and the many 
industries that rely on them. And Californians have become committed to 
ensuring it will not happen again.
  As the Newspress noted, this ``catastrophe helped spark an 
environmental movement that spread beyond Santa Barbara.''
  Since that time, some 24 city and county governments, including both 
Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, have passed anti-oil 
measures. These laws usually either require voter approval before any 
new onshore facilities that support offshore drilling could be built or 
they ban them outright.
  In 1994, the California legislature passed, and Republican Governor 
Pete Wilson signed into law, a permanent ban on new offshore oil 
leasing in State waters. In 1999, the State Assembly adopted a 
resolution requesting that the Federal Government enact a permanent ban 
on offshore oil drilling off the coast of California. I had introduced 
legislation to enact such a ban in 1998, and I have been joined by a 
majority of my California colleagues in supporting this legislation.
  Most recently, Governor Davis and the California Coastal Commission 
have been in litigation with the Federal Government about new offshore 
oil drilling. The State is trying to ensure that Californians have a 
say in any new development of these 36 leases off the coast, a position 
with which a Federal court has agreed. Thirty-one Members of the 
California delegation signed my amicus brief on behalf of the State's 
position, and even the Federal Government has demonstrated its 
sensitivity to California's opposition to new drilling. After all, it 
was President George H.W. Bush who signed an executive memorandum 
placing a 10-year moratorium on new leasing in Federal waters off the 
California coast. President Clinton renewed and extended the moratorium 
until the year 2012. And Secretary Norton even restated this 
administration's commitment to abiding by this moratorium, an odd 
stance to take if she believes there is no real opposition to new 
offshore drilling in California.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been leading a bipartisan delegation of 
California representatives in asking the President to work with us to 
terminate the leases off our coast. We wrote to him last week about 
this issue. Given the misimpression under which Secretary

[[Page H3426]]

Norton is clearly operating, a number of us are asking to meet 
personally with the President to explain the situation in California. 
If he is following the counsel of Secretary Norton, he is getting bad 
advice that needs to be countered.
  The President was right to take his action in Florida. It is our hope 
to convince him to help all of us out on the West Coast who want to 
protect our environment as well, and to control our economic destiny, 
just like they want to do in Florida.

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