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.
This
vote is a threat to California’s economy and our
way of life. In California we surf, swim, and
sail. Oil and gas rigs threaten to
destroy this way of life.
This
threat comes in exchange for no real solution to our energy problems. The public deserves real solutions that use
American technology to save energy by improving the gas mileage of our cars and
SUVs and developing clean, renewable energy.
Congress should stop wasting energy finding more handouts for Big Oil
and start taking serious steps to make our cars and trucks go farther on a
gallon of gas.
There
is very little oil and gas to be found off our coast. According to the
latest estimates from the federal government, we consume around 20 million
barrels of oil per day, which is 7.3 billion barrels a year. By drilling off the coast of California,
we would find about 8 months worth of oil. In 2004, the country used
about 22 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. The coast of California
has about 4.7 months of natural gas off the coast. These small amounts of oil and gas are not
worth the potential environmental and economic damage that drilling can do.
We
applaud the governor, the treasurer, the controller, and the Assembly Natural
Resources Committee for standing up and opposing oil and gas drilling off our
coast.
Unfortunately
more needs to be done to protect our coast. We call on the U.S. Senate to stop
oil and gas drilling off America’s coasts.
