Despite recent polling showing the state’s voters strongly opposed to new offshore oil drilling, few Southern California’s GOP Congress members are speaking out against it.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in January announced plans to offer 47 new drilling leases offshore of the West, East, Gulf and Alaska coasts. After immediate and prompt opposition from Florida’s GOP House members, Zinke said that state would be removed from the list. But such unified opposition has not materialized among California’s Republican officials — even though many of their Republican constituents are against the proposal.