Ever gone to one of the numerous beaches in our beautiful state? Whether you’ve gone somewhere local, like Playa Del Rey, or farther upstate into Norcal, the quality and marine life of our beaches are seriously at risk. The State of California has been butting heads with the Trump Administration many times during his second term, but this time, it’s over dangerous offshore drilling.
Donald Trump campaigned on “Drill, Baby, Drill,” and wasted no time in doing so, first by signing an executive order lifting many energy regulations and then creating the “Energy Dominance Council”, in an attempt to lower inflation and grow the economy. While this may seem like a good thing on the surface, it has had significant underlying issues.
We’ve already seen this disaster play out in Alaska, where Trump has put the already vulnerable Arctic environment and wildlife in danger by adding to the climate change crisis. Offshore drilling in California, among other states, will do irreparable harm to our environment, and the idea itself should be put to bed. The question here is clear: Is drilling for “liquid gold” really worth the damage it causes?
Drilling off the California coast isn’t something new. It’s been prominent since the early 1900s, but it became much more closely monitored after the disastrous 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.
The spill itself ranks as the third-largest oil spill in US history. It was so catastrophic, in fact, that it paved the way for various laws protecting our waters, such as the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The oil spill has since been used as an argument against offshore rigs, but there are already twenty-three of them in California’s federal waters.
There’s a reason why previous presidents and governors have been fighting against domestic drilling for decades. Mining for both gas and oil on land is already a dangerous enough endeavor, but doing so now through offshore drilling will pose a serious threat to our marine life. Looking as recently as the 2021 Orange County oil spill, countless birds and fish were harmed, and the food sources for aquatic life were contaminated, leaving the entire food chain and ecosystem in chaos.
Looking beyond wildlife, humans also reap the negative consequences of offshore drilling. We all want to enjoy clean and pollution-free beaches. Rigs that are actively extracting crude oil, which could spill at any moment, add an unnecessary risk to our beautiful coastline.
Toxins from oil spills will also affect the environment that we share with both marine and land animals for many years to come. Not to mention the immense amount of pollution these rigs produce on average, which further adds to the global warming issue.
Nobody can deny the importance of oil to our society, but drilling off our coastline comes at a high cost. It works to unravel years of environmental progress that has been shaped through progressive legislation over the past six decades. The fact that Governors Gavin Newsom (CA-D) and Ron DeSantis (FL-R) came together to collectively rebuke the idea of offshore drilling in their states, when those two men can rarely agree on anything, speaks volumes about the negative impact offshore drilling will cause.
What does this all mean for us? Newsom labels the proposal as “dead on arrival,” showing his willingness to combat the executive order. If all goes to plan, we can hope to enjoy our coastline without the increased risk of an oil spill next summer.
Learn to love our beaches, Nitros, and while you’re at it, don’t forget to save those turtles!
