Federal legislation seeks to permanently ban offshore oil drilling along California coastline

by Olivia Wynkoop, Bay City News January 31, 2023January 30, 2023

An offshore oil drilling platform looms in the distance near Isla Vista on the Southern California coast in an image from May 2020. Concerns about the environmental threat from offshore drilling and efforts to encourage the move to clean energy alternatives has prompted two California legislators to introduce a bill that would permanently ban future offshore oil drilling leases. (Glenn Beltz/Flickr)

California legislators have introduced a new bill that would forever ban offshore drilling in West Coast waters.

Announced by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, the West Coast Ocean Protection Act would prohibit any oil or gas exploration, development or production in federally owned parts of the outer Continental Shelf near California, Oregon and Washington.

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