The Interior Department will draft new offshore drilling plans for an area off the Southern California coastline after a punctured pipeline in 2021 leaked tens of thousands of gallons of oil onto a beach.
The decision by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is a win for the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the agency in 2022 after the Huntington Beach spill to prompt development of a new offshore drilling plan.
“More oversight of federal offshore drilling couldn’t come at a better time since the Trump administration is likely to try to offer oil companies new leases off California,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the center, in a statement.
“A Trump action like that would put our beautiful coast at new risk of oil spills,” she continued, “and it flies in the face of California’s longstanding ban on leasing additional state waters for offshore drilling.”
