BILL NUMBER: AJR 51 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 5, 2008
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 26, 2008
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nava
( Principal coauthor: Assembly Member
Lieu )
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Brownley, Hancock, Laird, and
Saldana )
( Coauthor: Senator Padilla
)
MARCH 10, 2008
Relative to offshore oil drilling.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 51, as amended, Nava. Oil and gas: offshore drilling: leases:
moratorium.
This measure would request that the Congress of
the United States continue the federal offshore oil and gas
leasing moratorium for the 2009 fiscal year and beyond, and would
express opposition to certain provisions of proposed federal energy
policies and legislation.
Fiscal committee: no.
WHEREAS, A bipartisan consensus in Congress
the Congress of the United States has protected the
California coastline from expanded offshore drilling for the past 27
years, renewing this protection each year in the form of a
congressional moratorium contained in the appropriations bill for the
United States Department of the Interior; and
WHEREAS, This offshore leasing moratorium also protects the
coastlines of Oregon and Washington; and
WHEREAS, President George W. Bush's recent statement on June 17,
2008, supports drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf; and
WHEREAS, Senator John McCain has also expressed his opinion to
relax the current moratorium on offshore drilling; and
WHEREAS, A report by the United States House Committee on Natural
Resources stated in June 2008 that drilling for oil off the Outer
Continental Shelf would not lower gasoline prices; and
WHEREAS, The Congress has been discussing
introduced several measures that would open our coast
and the whole the entire Outer Continental Shelf
to increased oil and gas drilling , potentially exposing our
coast to una cceptable environmental impacts ; and
WHEREAS, Other bills These measures
and amendments to the annual United States Department of the Interior
appropriations bill , including H.R. 2784, the National
Environment and Energy Development Act, sponsored by Rep. John
Peterson (R-PA), would, if adopted, would, if adopted,
immediately void the entire bipartisan congressional offshore
leasing moratorium, while undermining states' rights by pressuring
coastal jurisdictions to facilitate new federal offshore drilling by
making a state's share of the federal revenues from these activities
contingent on state approval of new and expanded federal offshore
leasing; and
WHEREAS, President George W. Bush has proposed ending the
presidential withdrawal of the California Outer Continental Shelf
lands managed by the federal government from consideration for
offshore oil and gas drilling; and
WHEREAS, Following the infamous 1969 oil spill that resulted in
the spillage of 3,200,000 gallons of crude oil, fouling Santa Barbara
County's ocean beaches, Californians became even more wary about
offshore oil drilling, continuing with the passage of additional oil
and gas leasing prohibitions in 1969, 1970, and 1971; and
WHEREAS, In 1994, the California Coastal Sanctuary Act of 1994
(Chapter 3.4 (commencing with Section 6240) of Part 1 of Division 6
of the Public Resources Code), became law, creating a comprehensive
statewide coastal sanctuary that prohibits future oil and gas leasing
in state waters, from Mexico to the Oregon border, in perpetuity,
and adding leases to the sanctuary as they are quitclaimed to the
state; and
WHEREAS, In addition, the protection of California's spectacular
1,100 mile coastline is of the utmost importance to a number of our
state's coastal and ocean dependent industries, including tourism and
commercial fishing, which contributed over $50 billion to California'
s economy in 2003; and
WHEREAS, California's ocean waters are also home to four important
sanctuaries, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the Gulf of
the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, the Cordell Bank National
Marine Sanctuary, and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
that are, by definition, areas of special conservation, recreational,
ecological, historical, cultural, archaeological, scientific,
educational, and aesthetic qualities and are particularly sensitive
to the impacts of oil development; and
WHEREAS, Additional offshore oil leasing and production would
degrade the quality of our air and water, and adversely impact our
marine resources, including severe impacts from seismic surveys on
marine mammals, that could involve threatened and endangered species,
including blue and humpback whales; and
WHEREAS, Offshore oil development poses a serious risk of oil
spills, especially with the introduction of deepwater drilling
technologies and floating oil storage and processing vessels, thereby
threatening marine ecosystems, and could have devastating effects on
the southern sea otter, listed as a threatened species since 1997,
as well as onshore wildlife, birds, and their habitats in the ocean,
in estuaries, and on beaches; and
WHEREAS, Offshore oil development also leads to the
industrialization of the shoreline, creating land use conflicts,
visually degrading coastal areas, and posing potentially
life threatening life-threatening public safety
risks; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California
respectfully requests that Congress the
Congress of the United States continue the federal offshore oil
and gas leasing moratorium for the 2009 fiscal year and beyond; and
be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of California
respectfully opposes the damaging coastal provisions of proposed
federal energy policies and legislation , including, but
not limited to, the adoption of H.R. 2784 and the end of presidential
withdrawal of Outer Continental Shelf lands from any offshore
drilling program, or any other coastal provisions
proposal that would weaken California's legitimate role in
energy siting decisions due to the threat posed by such legislation
to the economic integrity of California's coastal
and ocean dependent tourism and fishing economies and the
consolidation of centralized offshore project
review authority with the federal government; and be it
further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to each
Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the
United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.
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CORRECTIONS Text-Page 3.
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