oil drilling off of california's central coast
... reduced the chance of an oil spill. Since the spill in Santa Barbara, the platforms in federal waters have leaked only 840 barrels of oil. Technology has allowed oil drilling to be done much more efficiently so that the chance of an oil spill is unlikely. Still, many people, including Gray Davis, California’s Governor, argue that oil drilling harms the environment. Chris Kelly, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, D.C. notes that the oil drilling companies are very mindful of the environment and that they operate in more efficient ways that harm the environment less. (Waldner) They now use the technique of horizontal drilling, where instead of drilling many stations, they drill from just one station. They also use 3-D seismic graphing, which shows them exactly where to drill. Environmentalists also argue that oil drilling could harm the fishing industry, when actually oil platforms are beneficial to fishing. The legs of a platform support barnacles, mussels, and other marine life. Oil drilling is not as harmful to the environment as everyone assumes it is and it even benefits the environment in some aspects. New offshore leases are banned in California and thirty-six leases that were issued by the federal government between 1968 and 1994 are now up for review by the state of California. They were set to expire in 1999, but the Clinton administration extended them for forty-five months. Each of the leases covers about nine square miles of federal waters, which is more than three miles off shore. The leases allow for the companies to do exploration and development work, taking five to ten years. The leases do not allow them to drill; oil drilling to explore for oil deposits has not occurred since 1989. In December 2002 the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco temporarily blocked the renewal of the thirty- six leases so the state could investigate the environmental effects on the coast. Other issues they are investigating are the impacts from oil spills; potential harm to the resources of the Channel Islands and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries; conflicts with local policies; regulations restricting oil and gas development, and inconsistencies with the California Coastal Act and local coastal programs. The court also maintained that the state has the right to ban drilling on the leases permanently, if there is a threat to the coastal environment or the state fisheries. The oil companies have quite a bit to lose if there is a ban on their leases; they could lose billions of dollars. When they lose money so does the government, because the oil companies will sue for their losses. Banning oil drilling is something that can only harm our government’s financial state. Governor Gray Davis serves as the main opposition towards continuing drilling. In October 2001, the federal government made an offer to compromise the governor’s pledge to prevent any new drilling in federal waters off the coast of California. Davis demanded that new drilling be ceased, when earlier, while serving on the state Lands Commission as lieutenant governor and state controller, he approved new oil drilling on leases in state waters, which are within three miles of the coast. Davis has been fighting for the control of the federal oil reserves off the coast of California. This is necessary because the California state government, and not the federal government should decide the future of oil drilling off the California coast. This does not mean California should ban oil drilling. “There is still a lot of oil to be produced off the coast of California, period,” states Bakersfield oilman Dave Kilpatrick, a central coast vacationer. (Waldner) There is a lot of oil out there, and most of it is off limits. In California there are currently thirty non-producing crude oil reserves of the California coastline. According to the Energy Information Administration’s Annual Report, a non-producing crude oil reserve are those waiting for well work-over, drilling additional development or replacement wells, installing production or pipeline facilities, and awaiting depletion of other zones or reservoirs before re-completion in reservoirs not currently open to production. California contains sixteen percent of the nations oil reserves, and offshore rigs account for around twenty percent of oil production in California. This percentage could be increased by a significant amount if they would just allow for the exploration to find new oil reserves. The leases that are currently being reviewed are worth between 1.3 and 2.6 billion dollars ...