• State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblyman Das Williams (D-Carpinteria) introduced legislation on June 2 in response to the recent oil spill on Refugio State Beach. “There are still many unanswered questions about the Refugio oil spill,” Jackson said in a press release. “It’s already become clear that there is work we can and must do to help prevent spills and devastation from spills.” Jackson introduced The Rapid Oil Response Act—which would create a voluntary program for local fishing vessels and crews to become paid contractors that can respond immediatley to oil spills, pre-position two on-call oil skimmers on the coastline at the ready, and places a temporary moratorium on using dispersants in state waters—and a pipelines inspection bill—which would require annual oil pipeline inspections and re-establish the State Fire Marshal’s role in federally regulated pipelines. Williams introduced a shut-off technology bill, which would require pipelines along the coast to use the best available technology, including automatic shut-off valves.
• A bill jointly authored by state Sens. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to ban new offshore drilling in an area of the Santa Barbara Channel known as Tranquillon Ridge passed off the Senate floor on June 3. In 1994, the state Legislature banned new offshore oil and gas leases, but the Tranquillon Ridge extends into both state and federal waters, according to Jackson’s office, leaving it vulnerable to offshore drilling. “The Refugio oil spill has been a dramatic wake-up call, reminding us just how destructive and dirty oil can be,” Jackson said in a press release. “If there’s ever a place and time where we should commit to no new offshore drilling it should be here, in this extraordinary place know as the Tranquillon Ridge, and it should be now, when the consequences of oil—oil-covered birds and an oil-drenched coastline—are so fresh in our mind.” Last year, Jackson authored an identical bill which stalled on the Assembly floor.
This article appears in Jun 11-18, 2015.
