Oil Spill off Hunting Beach Coast Prompts Prohibition of California Offshore Drilling

On Wednesday, the orange county legislator introduced a bill to put a stop to California offshore drilling. The bill was introduced due to the damages caused by a major oil spill off in Huntington Beach, California. 

(Photo : Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Introducing a Bill to End California Offshore Drilling 

The bill is likely to face a lot of opposition and challenges from petroleum industry, as per Phys.org.

Eleven oil leashes from both the orange and Ventura counties will be affected. The State Lands Commission will negotiate with some agencies to cease or withdraw the leaches before the state takes action.

According to State Sen. Dave Min, an Irvine Democrat, to prevent a large amount of oil spill like the one that happened in october, it is necessary to take these actions because another oil spill will hugely affect the environment causing a lot of damages and might also lead to shutting down of the beach which will affect the economic status of the orange costal county communities.

But this proposal will decrease oil supply and  burden California taxpayers, according to Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, he further stated that the elimination would lead to the government taking compensation of these companies.

Also Read: Old Oil Rigs: Would It Be So Bad to Leave Them in the Sea?

Opposition to the Proposal

More concerns on these bills kept on increasing as its disadvantages and advantages are almost the same.

On Wednesday, Min said, "It is clear to me, and I think clear to anyone who looks at the sort of status of these rigs, that it's a ticking time bomb. You're asking for more and more spills, and we know that this is just horrific for our coastlines, for our coastal tourism economies, for our marine ecosystems." 

Also, the president of the State Building and Constructions Trades Council of California, President Andrew Meredith, expressed more concerns about reducing local oil production.

According to Meredith, this reduction will cause more stress to the California ports because reducing this oil will require the importation of more oil using tanker ship,  increasing the stress at the crowded ports.

(Photo : PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

What Could be the Cause of the Spill?

On october, about 25,000 gallons of oil was spilled from a submerged pipeline in the huntington beach, the cause is still unknown and is still under investigation but officials suspect the pipeline leakage might have been caused by anchor of container ships, as per Los Angeles Times. During this incident, senator min talked about proposing this bill.

According to Min, the bill will only affect three active oil platforms off the Orange County coast that are operated by two leaseholders, the California Resources Corp. and DCOR oil companies but will not affect other 26 in the federal waters and this include the pipeline recently affected in october.

The supposed loses of these oil operations being shut down are still yet to be released but the estimated cost of oil rigs might be between $25 million to $50 million per oil rig which is manageable from the giving budget.

According to Min and other lawmakers, the operation is necessary because if these oil continues to spill offshore facilities will be abandoned and might cost alot to the government if bankruptcy protection is filed.

Related Article: California Lawmakers Call to Halt Offshore Drilling After Disastrous Orange County Spill

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