Motion by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky

June 29, 1999

MOTION BY SUPERVISOR ZEV YAROSLAVSKY

The Department of the Interior recently announced its intentions to extend the lease terms of 40 ocean tracts on the Outer Continental Shelf to allow oil companies to proceed with drilling new wells. In response, Governor Gray Davis has directed his Secretary of Resources to take all legal, administrative, and regulatory steps to reverse this action and protect the California coast from the hazards of offshore oil drilling.

The Interior Department’s actions are particularly surprising since President Bush imposed a moratorium in 1990 on any additional leasing of federal oil rights beyond the three-mile limit. President Clinton subsequently extended the leasing ban through the year 2012. The 40 tracts in question were leased before the moratorium was imposed, but the apparent willingness of Federal agencies to facilitate their development at this time casts doubt on the government's intentions.

The Board should support Governor Davis in this matter. Offshore oil drilling blights our coastline and presents unacceptable environmental risks. Although the drilling in question would affect the coasts of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties only, Los Angeles should aid its sister counties to the north in countering this potential threat to the entire coast.

I THEREFORE MOVE that the Board of Supervisors go on record in opposition to renewed offshore oil drilling, and send a five-signature letter to President Clinton asking that the 40 leases not be extended and that the off-shore moratorium be continued; and that a copy of this letter be sent to Governor Davis, the California Congressional Delegation, and the Secretary of the Interior.

I FURTHER MOVE that the Board send a five-signature letter to the Governor in support of his effort to pursue all regulatory, administrative and legal options to preserve and protect California's ocean and coastal resources from the adverse impacts of this development.