2. OFFSHORE DRILLING: Memories of '69 spill haunt debate over moratorium (Greenwire, 07/07/2008)

Debra Kahn, Greenwire reporter

SAN FRANCISCO -- Polls show soaring gasoline prices are softening the resistance of voters in most coastal states to expanded offshore drilling, but Californians haven't jumped on the bandwagon.

More than half the Californians surveyed last month said they oppose lifting a federal offshore drilling moratorium. And their governor, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, is one of the most outspoken foes of coastal oil exploration, saying politicians who advocate lifting the ban as a way of lowering fuel prices are "blowing smoke."

Many here trace the state's opposition to offshore drilling to a catastrophic spill that spread crude over Santa Barbara County beaches in January 1969 -- a mess that conservationists here call "the environmental shot heard 'round the world."

The spill of 3 million gallons occurred just a year after offshore production began in the Pacific Ocean. A blowout during a routine extraction of a pipe from Union Oil Co.'s 3,500-foot well spewed oil and gas for 11 days until chemical mud was pumped in to seal cracks in the seafloor. The spill was linked to a waiver given to Union (which later became Chevron) by the U.S. Geological Survey that allowed the company to use a shorter-than-required well casing.

Crude was layered up to 6 inches deep on some beaches and floated on some 800 square miles of ocean. Rescuers removed at least 3,600 seabirds, seals and dolphins from the beaches, and thousands more birds were displaced from their feeding grounds.

Environmentalist James "Bud" Bottoms, a founder of the advocacy group Get Oil Out! -- or GOO! -- said the disaster spawned generations of activists who remain distrustful of assurances from oil companies and regulators that technologies and attitudes have evolved to head off any problems, much less catastrophic spills.

Oil spill cleanup efforts in Santa Barbara County in January 1969. Photo by Bob Duncan, courtesy of Get Oil Out!

"Anything can happen," Bottoms said in an interview. "I don't care what kind of advances there are."

The federal agency that since 1982 has overseen energy leasing on federal lands, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) said it has a number of safeguards for preventing spills, including requirements that companies use best-available technologies for drilling, prepare contingency plans for every project and conduct oil-spill drills.

"One of the things most people don't realize is that operations are working under a vastly different regulatory regime," MMS spokesman John Romero said. "It's like comparing apples to oranges to compare '69 versus today."

Major federal environmental laws were enacted in the wake of the spill: the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act, which mandates detailed environmental reviews and statements before major projects that could damage natural resources; the 1972 Clean Air Act; the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act, which gives states review power over federal actions on their coasts; and the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Beyond the laws, Romero said, oil companies are pressured by shareholders and the public at large to protect resources.

"The offshore oil and gas industry, just by the very nature of having to work in an area that's had the stigma of the '69 spill, is one of the -- if not the -- most over-regulated industries," he said. "It's not just MMS. The state weighs in, counties are often involved, and then you look at the nongovernmental organizations and the general public -- it's a very, very closely scrutinized industry."

Fewer spills

The number of offshore oil spills worldwide has dropped by almost half since 1975 -- from 560,000 barrels in 1975 to 350,000 barrels in 2002, according to the National Research Council.

And the number of spills has fallen more dramatically in U.S. waters, the Coast Guard says.

U.S. offshore spills decreased from 3.6 million barrels from 1971 to 1980 to 440,000 barrels between 1990 and 2000, despite production increases and reporting rules that have been tightened to include spills of less than 100 gallons (a barrel is 42 gallons), the Coast Guard says.

And since 1971, outer continental shelf (OCS) offshore facilities and pipelines have accounted for 2 percent of the total spillage. The last spill of 1,000 barrels or more from an offshore platform was in 1980, during a hurricane, the Coast Guard says.

The amount of oil spilled by drilling operations is also dwarfed by natural seepage, which made up 63 percent of petroleum in North American waters in 2002. Off Southern California, for example, 23 active OCS platforms spilled less than 1,000 barrels total between 1970 and 2001, compared to 4.5 million barrels from seepage, according to federal statistics.

"Examination of long-term incident trends since 1968 indicates that OCS operations are generally safer now than in the past," says MMS, which tracks data for uncontrolled well flows, drilling blowouts and collisions.

Shifting attitudes

As regulations and technologies have evolved, some environmentalists are showing a willingness to engage with government agencies and energy companies on offshore drilling proposals in California. The state can issue new offshore leases in its waters that are connected to existing federal leases.

Conservationists in California called the 3-million-gallon oil spill in 1969 "the environmental shot heard 'round the world." Photo by Bob Duncan, courtesy of Get Oil Out!

Several California environmental groups, including GOO!, made a deal in April with an oil company that will allow offshore drilling in two new leases off Santa Barbara.

Under the deal, Plains Exploration & Production Co. agreed to donate 3,900 acres to a public land trust, give $1.5 million to a fund for purchasing hybrid buses and shut down its operations nationwide in 14 years, in exchange for the groups' agreeing not to sue to block the drilling in the Tranquillon Ridge (Greenwire, April 22).

David Landecker, executive director of Environmental Defense Center, a Santa Barbara nonprofit that was part of the agreement, said the deal makes environmental protection a priority.

Plains' drilling plans include "no new platform, no new transport facilities, no pipelines," he said. "The only difference is the straw is going in a different direction," from a federal lease to an adjacent state lease.

"Our purpose is to ensure that these platforms are gone as quickly as possible," he said, "and that the oil is moved in the safest possible way without causing any new impacts."

Spurring discussion

Soaring gasoline prices have led some Republicans to call for lifting a 27-year-old federal offshore drilling moratorium. The likely Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, led the call last month and was followed closely by President Bush.

The likely Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, and leading Democratic lawmakers oppose such a move.

In Florida, where voters have traditionally opposed offshore drilling, a Rasmussen poll last week showed 59 percent of Floridians supporting drilling -- a figure similar to support shown nationwide (Greenwire, July 2).

Environment Florida field director Holly Binns said offshore drilling opponents are emphasizing protecting fisheries, beaches and other natural resources from oil pollution. "Routine drilling operations are a really dirty business," she said. "Heavy metals in the muds get dumped over the side of the rigs into the Gulf of Mexico fisheries."

In California, Landecker said he did not think the public would accept that more drilling would lower gas prices. The federal Energy Information Administration, in fact, estimates that it would be 2030 before drilling in now-prohibited waters would have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices.

"I think that clearly, the president and the presidential candidate talking about the fact that offshore drilling should be a part of national policy has caused a lot of discussion," Landecker said. "But no responsible commentator I've seen has said that authorizing drilling more leases offshore in California or Alaska would have any significant impact on the price of gas in the U.S."

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