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| The U.S. Senate passed the Domenici-Martinez-Landrieu Coastal Drilling Bill (SB 3711) and ended a 25-year moratorium on new offshore oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida. | |
| Today the California State Assembly voted to tell Congress to stop trying to open California’s coast to new offshore oil and gas drilling. The joint resolution, AJR 55 (Nava/Yee), urges Congress and, specifically, California’s Congressional delegation to continue the moratorium on new offshore oil and gas leasing. | |
| The U.S. Senate is poised to pass the Domenici-Martinez-Landrieu Coastal Drilling Bill (SB 3711) and end a 25-year moratorium on new offshore oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida. | |
| Gov. Schwarzenegger joined Environment California, Florida PIRG and the Sierra Club in urging the U.S. Senate to vote against any legislation that would threaten our coast and increase oil and gas drilling. | |
| Today Congress voted to resume oil and gas drilling off the coast of California and other states. We are very disappointed that members of the California Congressional Delegation went against the wishes of the governor, the treasurer, the controller, and the people of California and instead voted to allow drilling off our coast. | |
| The U.S. House of Representatives voted 217-203 in support of an amendment by Reps. Putnam, Davis, Young, Foley and Capps that will restore the 25 year Congressional moratorium on new offshore drilling leases off the coast of California to the Department of Interior Appropriations bill. | |
| The U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted today to reverse a 24 year congressional moratorium on offshore natural gas exploration. By a 37-25 vote, the committee approved the amendment from Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) that would eliminate the ban in the 2007 Interior and Environment Spending bill. California Representatives Lewis and Doolittle voted for the amendment. | |
| The California State Senate passed SB 899 (Simitian), a bill that will phase out the use of dangerous chemicals from plastic packaging used in California by 2015. SB 899 codifies section 11 of the California Ocean Protection Council resolution passed in February 2007. ( http://resources.ca.gov/copc/02-08 07_meeting/Adopted_Marine_Debris_Res_0207.pdf ) | |
| Only 30 out of 167 fish populations off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington are known to be healthy, and that number has not improved since 2001, according to an analysis of government statistics in a new report released today by the Marine Fish Conservation Network (Network) and Environment California. The Pacific Fishery Management Council is the primary agency responsible for managing fishing activities and ensuring the health of 167 marine fish populations. | |
| The Senate Environmental Quality Committee voted 4-2 to pass legislation to phase out the use of dangerous toxic chemicals in plastic packaging and establish programs to recycle derelict fishing gear. | |
| On Thursday February 8, 2007 the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) voted unanimously to adopt a resolution that will reduce the amount of plastic pollution that is floating in the ocean and washing up on California beaches. | |
| Environmental groups are calling on Congress to introduce and pass one bill that will protect the entire coast of the United States and the Great Lakes from oil and gas drilling. | |
| The House voted today to expand offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The House also failed to pass an amendment by Representatives Markey (D-MA) and Hinchey (D-NY) to recapture tens of billions of dollars of lost oil and gas royalties from deepwater wells in the Gulf. The estimated revenue lost to the federal government is $9.5 billion in the next five years alone. | |
| In an attempt to push through a dirty offshore oil drilling proposal just before the recess, House leaders are including the Senate offshore drilling bill (S. 3711) in a huge tax and trade bill that will likely be voted on later today or tomorrow. Earlier this week, House Republican leadership withdrew its attempt to pass S. 3711 because they didn’t have the two thirds votes they needed to pass the bill under suspension of the rules. | |
| Environment California announces its support for H.R. 1187, a bill to expand the Gulf of Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries northward to areas off the coast of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties in California. | |
| San Diego-Environmental Activists, scientists, and concerned citizens assembled before City Hall today to draw attention to the crisis of over fishing and the consequential threat to ocean ecosystems and marine mammals such as turtles, dolphins, and whales. | |
| Dan Jacobson: "Environment California is firmly opposed to proposals to continue decades of failed energy policy by opening our protected coasts to offshore drilling..." | |
| The Supreme Court handed a gift to one of the biggest polluters in the world when they reduced what had once been a $5 billion punitive damages award against ExxonMobil to about $500 million. At a time when oil companies are making record profits they need to be held accountable for their dangerous and dirty accidents. Our oceans are struggling to survive. Money from this settlement could have been used to protect our oceans for future generations. Now the oil companies are getting off the hook. This decision is a shame and sin. | |
| Press statement by Dan Jacobson, Legislative Director for Environment California, on Bush's call opening coastal waters to drilling. Excerpts from Governor Schwarzenegger, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Feinstein, and Senator Boxer attached. | |
| Five years have elapsed since the Pew Oceans Commission's seminal report urging prompt action to arrest the alarming decline of this country's ocean resources. | |
| Today, the Senate Commerce Committee approved and referred to the full Senate H.R. 1187, a bill to double the size of the Gulf of Farallones - Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries and protect a unique marine environment off our coast in Northern California. Marine sanctuaries heal our damaged oceans and protect vulnerable sea animals. At various times during the year, the area hosts more than one third of the world’s whale and dolphin species including the world’s largest concentration of endangered Blue whales, the largest animal on earth. Other endangered marine animals that use the area include Humpback whales, sea turtles and sea birds. The largest concentration of breeding seabirds in the continental U.S. feasts on the rich food produced here, some migrating from as far away as the Midway Atoll in the central Pacific (protected by the new National Marine Monument) and New Zealand to feed. | |
| Senate Oceans Subcommittee Hearing May 6, 2008 Will Support Sanctuary Expansion off California Coast | |
| On behalf of the millions of members our organizations represent, we urge you to support H.R. 1187, the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries Boundary Modification and Protection Act, as passed by the House on March 31st under suspension of the rules and by the Natural Resources Committee by voice vote. As you know, the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard will hold a hearing on the bill on May 6th and a markup soon thereafter. | |
| San Francisco, CA - Federal data show that at least nine percent of Pacific Coast fish stocks for which there is adequate information were overfished in 2007. However, for fully 70 percent of the fish stocks (129 out of 182) along the Pacific Coast, the government doesn’t have adequate information to know whether these stocks are healthy or not, according to a report released by Environment California today. | |
| Environment America and our partner, Environment California, applaud the efforts of many including Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Rep. Nick Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Madeline Bordallo, Chairwoman of the Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans Subcommittee, for securing passage of H.R. 1187 which will double the size of the Gulf of Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries off the coast of California. | |
