1.      expresses the California Legislature’s strong opposition to any new federal energy policy and legislation that opens up the California, Oregon, and Washington coast to offshore drilling, and

2.      rejects President Bush’s recent Executive Order which ends the moratorium on new oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf along the California Coast and the coastlines of other states. (Resolution Below)

Assembly Joint Resolution 51

Relative to offshore oil drilling.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

   AJR 51, as amended, Nava. Oil and gas: offshore drilling: leases:

moratorium.

   This measure would request that the Congress of the United States

continue the federal offshore oil and gas leasing moratorium for the 2009 fiscal

year and beyond, and would express opposition to certain provisions of proposed

federal energy policies and legislation.

Fiscal committee: no.

   WHEREAS, A bipartisan consensus in  the Congress of the

United States has protected the California coastline from expanded

offshore drilling for the past 27 years, renewing this protection each year in

the form of a congressional moratorium contained in

the appropriations bill for the United States Department of the Interior; and

   WHEREAS, This offshore leasing moratorium also protects the

coastlines of Oregon and Washington; and

   WHEREAS, President George W. Bush's recent statement on June 17,

2008, supports drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf; and

   WHEREAS, Senator John McCain has also expressed his opinion to

relax the current moratorium on offshore drilling; and

   WHEREAS, A report by the United States House Committee on Natural

Resources stated in June 2008 that drilling for oil off the Outer

Continental Shelf would not lower gasoline prices; and

   WHEREAS, The Congress  introduced several measures that would open

the entire Outer Continental Shelf to increased oil and gas drilling,potentially

exposing our coast to unacceptable environmental impacts  ; and

   WHEREAS, These measures and amendments to the annual United States

Department of the Interior appropriations bill  would, if adopted, immediately

void the entire bipartisan congressional offshore leasing moratorium, while

undermining states' rights by pressuring coastal jurisdictions to facilitate new

federal offshore drilling by making a state's share of the federal revenues from

these activities contingent on state approval of new and expanded federal offshore leasing;

and

   WHEREAS, President George W. Bush has proposed ending the

presidential withdrawal of the California Outer Continental Shelf

lands managed by the federal government from consideration for

offshore oil and gas drilling; and

   WHEREAS, Following the infamous 1969 oil spill that resulted in

the spillage of 3,200,000 gallons of crude oil, fouling Santa Barbara

County's ocean beaches, Californians became even more wary about

offshore oil drilling, continuing with the passage of additional oil

and gas leasing prohibitions in 1969, 1970, and 1971; and

   WHEREAS, In 1994, the California Coastal Sanctuary Act of 1994

(Chapter 3.4 (commencing with Section 6240) of Part 1 of Division 6

of the Public Resources Code), became law, creating a comprehensive

statewide coastal sanctuary that prohibits future oil and gas leasing

in state waters, from Mexico to the Oregon border, in perpetuity,

and adding leases to the sanctuary as they are quitclaimed to the

state; and

   WHEREAS, In addition, the protection of California's spectacular

1,100 mile coastline is of the utmost importance to a number of our

state's coastal and ocean dependent industries, including tourism and

commercial fishing, which contributed over $50 billion to California'

s economy in 2003; and

   WHEREAS, California's ocean waters are also home to four important

sanctuaries, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the Gulf of

the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, the Cordell Bank National

Marine Sanctuary, and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary

that are, by definition, areas of special conservation, recreational,

ecological, historical, cultural, archaeological, scientific,

educational, and aesthetic qualities and are particularly sensitive

to the impacts of oil development; and

   WHEREAS, Additional offshore oil leasing and production would

degrade the quality of our air and water, and adversely impact our

marine resources, including severe impacts from seismic surveys on

marine mammals, that could involve threatened and endangered species,

including blue and humpback whales; and

   WHEREAS, Offshore oil development poses a serious risk of oil

spills, especially with the introduction of deepwater drilling

technologies and floating oil storage and processing vessels, thereby

threatening marine ecosystems, and could have devastating effects on

the southern sea otter, listed as a threatened species since 1997,

as well as onshore wildlife, birds, and their habitats in the ocean,

in estuaries, and on beaches; and

   WHEREAS, Offshore oil development also leads to the

industrialization of the shoreline, creating land use conflicts,

visually degrading coastal areas, and posing potentially

life-threatening  public safety risks; now, therefore, be it

   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of

California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California

respectfully requests that the Congress of the United States

continue the federal offshore oil and gas leasing moratorium for the 2009 fiscal

year and beyond; and be it further

   Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of California

respectfully opposes the damaging coastal provisions of proposed

federal energy policies  and legislation  , including, but not limited to,

the adoption of H.R. 2784 and the end of presidential withdrawal of Outer Continental Shelf lands

from any offshore drilling program, or any proposal  that would weaken California's legitimate role in

 energy siting decisions due to the threat posed by such legislation to theintegrity of

California's coastal and ocean  dependent tourism and fishing economies and the

consolidation of project review authority with the federal government; and be it further

    Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the

President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,

to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the

United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.