Will Oil Spill Further Restrict Offshore Drilling?

Calls for an end to offshore drilling are getting louder after 126,000 gallons or 3,000 barrels morphed into an oil slick covering about 13 square miles of the Pacific Ocean this week. Oil production off California’s coast has declined sharply since its peak in the 1990s, in part due to the state’s strict environmental rules, according to Reuters. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he wants to end oil drilling in the state by 2045.

California’s offshore drilling was initially restricted after a 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara that dumped 80,000 barrels into the ocean. Another spill off Santa Barbara in 2015 sent some 2,400 barrels onto the shore and into the Pacific.

“Accidents like this one are a direct consequence of our fossil-fuel-based economy. The oil spill off Huntington Beach is a predictable consequence of the aging infrastructure associated with hydrocarbon extraction along the California coastline,” says Linda Ivany, a professor at Syracuse University whose research focuses on relationships among ecology, evolution and environment. “While the current spill is small compared to what might result from a tanker accident, significant leaks from pipelines (like this appears to be) are likely to become more common in the future and contribute progressively more to the volume of oil inadvertently released into natural habitats each year.”

Ivany says any oil that makes it to nearshore settings, where wildlife is abundant, can be seriously damaging.

“Birds and mammals especially suffer because the oil coats their feathers and fur, making them lose buoyancy and insulation, and often causing death independent of any toxic effects associated with ingestion,” she says. “Oil ends up in the food chain as well, contaminating food sources and causing problems for plankton, fish and shellfish. Depending on the type of oil, it can get into the sediments and stay in the environment for many years.”

Ivany says transitioning to alternative energy sources is an obvious solution. Not only will there be “fewer of these kinds of attention-grabbing accidents, but even more importantly, the sooner we will be able to scale back on CO2 emissions and hence limit the slower but much more impactful and far-reaching consequences of climate warming”.

Oceana, an ocean conservation group, also called for an end to offshore oil and gas drilling.

“This is just the latest tragedy of the oil industry. It’s well past time to prevent future oil spills by permanently protecting our coasts from offshore drilling,” Jacqueline Savitz, Oceana’s chief policy officer, said in a statement.

The spill occurred in federal waters. Officials said federal, state and city agencies were involved in the response headed by the U.S. Coast Guard.