Offshore oil drilling threat reprieve

The NC Journal has an update on offshore oil drilling threats – relatively good news, too.

Yeah! Go, Mike!

From the T-S: Thompson floats no-drill bill

Rep. Mike Thompson has lodged legislation aimed at permanently protecting the North Coast from oil and gas drilling after recent moves by the federal government to pursue oil exploration.

The bill would prevent drilling along the Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte coasts outside the 3-mile state jurisdiction. A ban on drilling on the outer continental shelf died in the last Congress, and the U.S. Interior Department quickly moved to open some areas for exploration.

Thompson said that drilling off the California coast could threaten a critical area of ocean in which upwelling brings nutrients from the sea floor and energizes the food chain critical for fisheries, one of few such regions in the world.

Full story at the Times-Standard.

Press release from Thompson’s office.

Drillers eye oil reserves off California coast

From today’s SF Chronicle:

The federal government is taking steps that may open California’s fabled coast to oil drilling in as few as three years, an action that could place dozens of platforms off the Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt coasts, and raises the specter of spills, air pollution and increased ship traffic into San Francisco Bay.

Full story here.