CALIFORNIA/INTERIOR/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “California has released its battle plan in a brewing war between the White House and coastal states opposed to the Trump administration’s expansive offshore drilling ambitions.
The state’s powerful land commission said on Wednesday [2-7-18] it will refuse to issue permits for infrastructure that drillers need to bring oil and gas from offshore fields to land. Meanwhile, the California Coastal Commission, which has authority to review oil and gas activity off the state’s shores, also formally opposed Trump’s plan to allow new drilling in Pacific waters.
The strategy could serve as a blueprint for the governors and congressional delegations of coastal states, who are overwhelmingly united in bipartisan opposition to Trump’s plan to open nearly all of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas development.
California’s three-member State Lands Commission is vowing to block construction of pipelines or to permit oil and gas from new offshore developments to flow through existing lines… The commission announced the plan ahead of a public meeting in Sacramento with the Trump administration to gather feedback on the offshore drilling schedule. It is the only meeting scheduled in California…
However, California has another trick up its sleeve: a federal law called the Coastal Zonal Management Act. The law, designed to boost federal and state cooperation in managing the nation’s waters, gives states authority to review offshore federal and industrial activity that could impact their local environment…
The California Coastal Commission did not threaten to wield that authority on Wednesday, but a commission spokesperson told CNBC it is an option available to the state. The commission also sent a letter opposing offshore drilling to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Interior Department branch that manages the offshore lease schedule.
That strategy could provide a blueprint for other states.”
-Tom DiChristopher, “California just gave coastal states a blueprint to block Trump’s offshore drilling plan,” CNBC, Feb. 8, 2018