The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to object to an offshore fracking proposal using nine of Platform Gilda’s wells, located 8.8 miles off the coast of Oxnard.
The commissioners based their vote on an especially emphatic staff report highlighting the risks of both an oil spill on ecologically rich and unique waters and the difficulties containing such spills once the oil hits the high seas, especially when the waves are high and choppy and at night.
In addition to the risk posed by oil, the commissioners cited the uncharted risks associated with the highly toxic fracking fluids that are drilled into the drill seams 5,000 feet below the sea floor at pressures up to 10,000 pounds per square inch.
The commission staff noted that Platform Gilda was approved and installed 45 years ago for conventional oil and natural gas drilling, the thinking being that the life span of the project would last only half that long. According to the staff report, the fracking proposal would extend the life span of Platform Gilda by another 20 years. The staff report questioned whether the old platform was sturdy enough to operate safely for that long.
A representative for the oil company DCOR, which operates Platform Gilda and eight others in federal waters off the California Coast, spoke briefly, arguing that the time extension would be closer to five additional years. He would be the only speaker to testify on behalf of the proposal.
About 30 people representing the alphabet soup of environmental organizations testified against the proposal and in favor of commission staff’s recommendation to object to the proposal. Technically and legally, the commission vote qualifies as what’s known in the parlance as “an objection” to the proposal — by DCOR and the federal agencies charged with ensuring the safety of coastal oil development in federal waters — and its consistency with the state’s marine protection program.
DCOR can — and all but certainly will — file an appeal with the Secretary of Commerce to override the commission’s action. For that to happen, the Secretary of Commerce will have to make the finding that the additional production from Platform Gilda — 14 million additional barrels over a 20-year period — would further the national security of the United States.
While environmentalist groups — including the Environmental Defense Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Surfrider Foundation, to name a few — have argued that 14 million additional barrels spread out over 20 years would have less than even marginal impact on the state or national oil supply, the Trump Administration has argued in favor of an aggressive expansion of oil production, citing national security considerations. The United States is at war with Iran, and the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows—shows little sign of opening any time soon.
