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For Immediate Release
September 25, 2017
Greenpeace Analysis Reveals Protected California Coast At Risk from Oil & Gas Development
An area the size of Sequoia National Park overlap with fossil fuel deposits
Greenpeace analysis reveals that protected marine sanctuaries off the California coast overlap with significant fossil fuel basins putting them at greater threat of oil and gas leasing thanks to the Trump administration’s review of marine sanctuaries. Major oil companies have expressed interest in Pacific Coast leases.
“Reducing the size of California’s marine sanctuaries could be a prelude to future oil and gas leasing, potentially bringing risky, unnecessary oil drilling to previously protected coastlines,” said Greenpeace USA Senior Research Specialist Tim Donaghy. “At a time when the United States should be transitioning to renewable energy, the Trump administration wants to lock us into a fossil fuel future that threatens the health and safety of all of us while destroying protected and ecologically important places.”
By conducting an overlap analysis of geographic regions provided by NOAA and BOEM, Greenpeace found the expansion regions for the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank marine sanctuaries, protected areas that form a block of protected coast when combined with the Monterey Bay national marine sanctuary, overlap with fossil fuel basins estimated to contain 3.4 billion barrels of oil and 3.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.The overlap between these regions under review and the fossil fuel basin covers an area nearly the size of Sequoia National Park. The recent expansions of Greater Farallones, Cordell Bank, and Monterey Bay are all included in Trump’s review of national marine sanctuaries.
After excluding state waters, extending three nautical miles from shore, from the areas considered for the geologic basins, Greenpeace found that 23 percent of the expanded region of Farallones NMS overlaps with two offshore basins (the Point Arena and Bodega basins). More than 10 percent of the expanded region of Cordell Bank NMS overlaps with the Bodega Basin.
“The regions under review are some of the most biologically productive marine environments in the world, and provides breeding and feeding grounds for at least 25 endangered or threatened species including humpback whales, white-sided dolphins and the threatened Steller sea lion,” Donaghy said.
Trump’s America First Offshore Energy executive order directed the Department of Commerce to conduct a review of designations and expansions of National Marine Sanctuaries. After lobbying by fossil fuel industry groups, a bill aimed to prohibit the building of oil and gas infrastructure off the coast of California, introduced in response to Trump’s executive order, failed in the state Senate this week.
Resources:
Contact:
Cassady Craighill, [email protected], 828-817-3328
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