Coast : Oil Drilling Foes Seek Big Crowd at Hearing

Forces opposed to offshore oil exploration near the county have called for a heavy turnout at a public hearing in Newport Beach Thursday on the Interior Department’s five-year plan to sell drilling rights.

Jeff Leitch, director of the Laguna Beach citizens group Save Our Shores, said a strong showing at the hearing “is critical.”

“These meetings are key,” Leitch said. “That’s where the governor gathers public input for his statement to (Interior Secretary Donald P.) Hodel, and that statement is largely influenced by a show of support or opposition to the five-year plan. This is the only such meeting in the county. The people who come are going to influence Orange County’s view.”

Last year, Congress voted to lift a moratorium on offshore oil exploration. The new five-year plan includes two lease sales in which oil companies can bid for exploration rights on thousands of nine-square-mile tracts of ocean floor, “some as close as three miles to Laguna Beach,” Laguna Beach Councilman Robert Gentry said. “This is the James Watt plan with Donald Hodel’s signature on it.”

Hodel replaced Watt as interior secretary.

Some tracts could still be removed from consideration if there is enough public opposition, Gentry said at a Save Our Shores strategy session held in Laguna Beach Monday night. On Tuesday, Gentry flew to Washington to testify before a delegation of 19 congressmen from coastal states trying to work out a new agreement with Hodel on offshore drilling.

Gentry said he will ask the congressmen to declare the waters between the county’s beaches and Santa Catalina Island an oceanic park, off limits to any oil drilling. “Let them go get all that oil beyond Catalina Island. Yosemite National Park has 3 million visitors a year, and so does Laguna. Can you imagine if they wanted to drill in Yosemite? They wouldn’t let it happen.”

Thursday’s hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. at Newport Beach City Hall. County elected officials will give testimony until noon, and public testimony will be heard from noon until 4 p.m.