Will Congress ban oil drilling off the Sonoma coast?
Guy Kovner
Press Democrat
12/02/2010
It’s considered a long shot, but a permanent ban on offshore oil drilling along the North Coast could be approved by Congress this month.
“Everybody’s holding their breath,” said Richard Charter, a veteran anti-drilling advocate from Bodega Bay. “This is really the closest we’ve ever been to permanent protection” for the coast.
If such a measure is passed, it would be the first time in a 30-year battle that oil rigs were definitively barred from the Sonoma and part of the Mendocino coast, a goal that has united local officials, fishing interests and environmentalists.
The stiffest competition now comes from the crush of business pending before the lame-duck Congress, including the Bush tax cuts, unemployment benefits and the “don’t ask, don’t tell law” on gays and lesbians in the military.
Charter, a lobbyist with the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife, said approval of a drilling ban “would be a long shot, end-of-session effort” but still a possibility until Congress adjourns, presumably before Christmas.
A bill originated by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, would more than double the size of two existing marine sanctuaries — in which drilling is prohibited. The measure appears likely to be rolled into an Omnibus Public Lands Act, congressional aides said Thursday.
The Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones national marine sanctuaries currently cover about 1,800 square miles of ocean from just north of the Golden Gate Bridge to Bodega Head.
