Renewables ‘Si,’ Oil & Gas ‘Non,’ DOI’s Salazar Told

California’s invaluable coastal resources should not be jeopardized by oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf and inevitable oil spills, Congressional and state elected officials told U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar April 17 in San Francisco. “We have a new rallying cry, and it is: ‘baby, baby, no more drilling,’” said Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA). “This vision rests on energy efficiency and renewable energy and will lead to cleaner, greener jobs,” she added The billions of dollars that would be spent on developing the infrastructure and subsidies for new offshore oil and gas leases should be invested in developing new renewable energy resources to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, said Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi. In late January, Bush administration officials hastily cobbled together a five-year offshore drilling plan just hours before President Barack Obama was sworn into office after Congress failed to extend the 25-year moratorium on new offshore oil and gas leases last fall. Salazar--embracing Obama’s call for transparency and public input in the nation’s policy-making--extended the public comment period by 180 days and held four public hearings in the coastal regions where offshore drilling is proposed. San Francisco was the final stop for the former Colorado senator who rode into town wearing his trademark cowboy hat with ears wide open to listen to local concerns. The Obama administration intends to develop a long-term energy framework that is based on sound policy and not subject to political pressure and public opinion from gas price spikes, Salazar said. “My high expectation is that we’ll have a map for offshore energy development and an energy plan this year,” he said. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who Salazar introduced as his sister in the U.S. Senate, responded, “My message today is listen to your sister. New drilling sites off our pristine coast would be an environmental and economic disaster for our state.” The outer continental shelf comprises 1.75 billion acres--equal to 80 percent of the U.S. land mass--and it will see renewable energy development, Salazar said. Salazar made it clear that all options for offshore energy development are on the table, including wind, solar, wave, tidal, and ocean power. To this end the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to spur development of renewable energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf by clarifying respective leasing and licensing authority. Under the agreement, the MMS will retain jurisdiction for all offshore renewable energy leases as well as licensing solar and wind energy projects. FERC will license all hydrokinetic energy projects in the OCS--wave, tidal, and ocean--under the Federal Power Act. FERC has already approved two wave energy projects in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. The 2005 Energy Policy Act gave the MMS authority to regulate offshore renewable energy projects, and the service issued a proposed rule last summer and completed a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. The MMS is working on a final rule which it expects to issue within a few weeks, said David Smith, an MMS spokesman. The federal plan proposes opening 130 million acres in three tracts off the California coast for oil and gas leasing from 2010 to 2015: the Pt. Arena Basin in Mendocino County on the North Coast, Santa Maria Basin on the Central Coast, and the San Juan Capistrano Basin along the South Coast. Eighty percent of the known oil reserves on the outer continental shelf are already open to drilling, but oil companies have only drilled for 20 percent of them, Speier said. Indeed offshore drilling has slowed 50 percent since the offshore drilling moratorium expired in September, she said. California lawmakers said the amount of recoverable oil and gas would not be worth sacrificing these pristine coastal areas when far greater gains could be easily made through increasing fuel efficiency and energy conservation. Indeed California has led the way in energy conservation, they noted. State Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman and Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, both stressed that California has consistently opposed offshore oil and gas development for the past 25 years during Republican and Democratic administrations. Last week the State Lands Commission reiterated its opposition to opening up California’s shoreline to new oil and gas leases. Salazar told state officials that California needs to partner with the federal government to expedite development of renewable energy zones both offshore and onshore. He pointedly asked them if they would support offshore wind energy projects if the technology can be developed to support the Pacific Coast’s deeper waters. Woolsey, whose district includes the Marin and Sonoma coasts, said she would support offshore wind turbines if they are properly sited and not permitted in national marine sanctuaries as the MMS offshore energy plan has proposed.

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Renewables ‘Si,’ Oil & Gas ‘Non,’ DOI’s Salazar Told

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