Part I - Bill to ban oil drilling in marine protected area passes

By Dan Bacher | June 28, 2014 |  A bill to ban offshore oil drilling in state waters in the Santa Barbara Channel known as Tranqui...



By Dan Bacher | June 28, 2014 | 

A bill to ban offshore oil drilling in state waters in the Santa Barbara Channel known as Tranquillon Ridge passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on June 26 by a vote of 6 to 2. 

Senate Bill 1096, sponsored by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. 

Assemblymembers Chesbro, Garcia, Muratsuchi, Skinner, Stone and Williams voted yes, while Dahle and Patterson voted no. Assemblymember Bigelow was absent. 

The passage of the bill through the Committee sheds the spotlight on two glaring loopholes in the implementation of California environmental law – one in the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative’s creation of “marine protected areas” and the other in the California Coastal Sanctuary Act. 

Fishermen, Tribal leaders and grassroots environmentalists have repeatedly criticized the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative for creating questionable "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling, fracking, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture and all human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering. 

The Coastal Justice Coalition, a group of members of the Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Karuk and other Tribes who agree that the State of California has no right to regulate tribal gathering, exposed this loophole in the MLPA Initiative when they stated, "Protected areas would allow for deep water drilling yet would ban tribal gathering," in a news release issued in June 2010.  

While MLPA Initiative officials let the oil industry, corporate polluters and ocean industrialists off the hook in their strange concept of "marine protection, oil drilling will be banned in one state marine protected area, the Vanderberg State Marine Reserve, if Senator Jackson’s bill passes through the legislature and is signed by Governor Jerry Brown. 


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3 comments

Bud said...

What has the oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel got to do with Elk Grove news? No one reads this stuff! There are never any comments from "Anonymous" or other fart names!

Art said...

Why is this even here on this site? No one reads this stuff, not relevant to EG and its city council..No comments, not even from Anonymous and his other fart names... Publish where useful, Mr. Bacher!

Elk Grove News said...

Art and Bud,

Thank your for your feedback regarding Dan Bacher's contributions to this site. Mr Bacher's primarily focuses on water issue, most of which are relevant to the California Delta. Water, and how it is conveyed within California, is an issue that touches almost every community in our state.

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