We’ve never seen anything like this. This month, Trump unveiled a plan to hand 90% of America’s coasts over to Big Oil. It would be the largest expansion of offshore drilling ever, expanding drilling into nearly all of America’s waters including six locations off the California coast.
Here in California we know the toll that offshore drilling can take on our coastlines, coastal communities, and marine life. If you were alive at the time of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, you will never forget the images of oil-soaked birds, dead seals and dolphins washing up on beaches, and a miles-wide oil slick. That disaster helped catalyze the environmental movement and triggered a moratorium on new leases for offshore drilling in the state that has lasted for 35 years, through both Democratic and Republican administrations. Until now.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is holding hearings on the proposal in coastal states this month. There is only one hearing for the entire state of California, to be held February 8th in Sacramento. This is our chance to show Trump how deeply unpopular and destructive this plan is. Please join us to speak up for our oceans, our climate, and our coastal communities.
WHAT: BOEM hearing to urge the Trump administration not to open our coast to new oil-drilling leases
DATE: Thursday, February 8th
TIME: Rally at 1:30 pm; Hearing 3 to 7 pm
LOCATION: Rally on the North Steps of the California State Capitol (map); Hearing in the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 (map)
RSVP, then reserve your FREE bus ticket to Sacramento from San Francisco, Oakland, or Santa Rosa (Please note: Only register if you are definitely going because seats are limited and we do not want to pay for an empty bus to Sacramento.)
Can't attend the hearing? Send a message to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) before March 9th telling them to keep oil rigs away from our coasts!
Even without a major disaster, offshore drilling is dirty and destructive. The combination of seismic blasts, increased traffic, and smaller spills would do irreparable damage to marine life and coastal communities. And given California’s vulnerability to sea level rise, wildfires, and drought from fossil-fuel-driven climate change, Californians should oppose offshore drilling in all of our oceans.
This plan is a reckless attempt to sell off America’s coasts to the fossil fuel industry. The only people who want this plan are the oil executives who bankrolled Trump’s campaign and staffed his administration. We’ve beaten them before, and in 2018, we need to do it again.
Please RSVP and join us in Sacramento on February 8th or send a message to BOEM telling them to stop this destructive plan.