In response to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s announcement on January 4 to open federal waters along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to new federal offshore oil and gas drilling, two California legislators are reintroducing legislation to protect the state from new federal offshore oil drilling.
The spending of millions of dollars by the Western States Petroleum Association, Chevron and other oil companies to stop the bill resulted in the legislation being stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee last year. The oil industry spent more on lobbying in California, $16,360,618, in just the first six months of 2017 than was spent by the industry in all of 2016, $16.0 million, according to a report compiled and written by William Barrett of the Lung Association in California.