County Orders Study of Proposals to Block Offshore Oil Drilling

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed the county counsel to research three proposals--including a ballot measure and an ordinance--to discourage offshore oil drilling by banning onshore oil and gas facilities along North County’s unincorporated coastline.

Earlier this month, Supervisor Susan Golding told the San Diego City Council that she wanted the board to put such a measure on the November ballot. On May 5, the council backed a similar proposal, which will appear on the city’s November ballot, to ban oil and gas facilities along the San Diego coastline.

But a day after testifying before the council, Golding said she was not sure whether the board legally could put the measure--which would amend the County Charter--to a public vote. She said she will ask County Counsel Lloyd Harmon to research the issue and determine whether the board instead must adopt an ordinance to enact the ban.

Golding put the matter on the board’s Tuesday agenda, but the question of how an onshore ban could be enacted remained unanswered. During a short and confusing discussion of the subject, Golding said she still favors a ballot measure to amend the charter.

But she agreed with other supervisors who said such a move could set an unacceptable precedent by allowing voters, instead of the board, to decide future land-use issues. The charter change could be challenged in court, she agreed.

“I thought it was a heck of an idea,” Golding said. “ . . . I realize that putting it (the onshore ban) on the charter would be a drastic measure, but we would be letting the voters make that decision.”

Discussing the proposed onshore ban, Supervisor Leon Williams said, “I think the most secure way we could do it is by ordinance. “I think that land-use issues must be decided by ordinance.”

Board Chairman Brian Bilbray called the ban an “honorable” idea but said it is “seldom appropriate” for a land-use issue to be decided by a charter amendment.

Harmon was asked to give the board at least three alternatives by June 3.

The first would be the charter amendment via a ballot measure, made possible if Harmon can find no legal obstacles to the move. The second route is the enactment of an ordinance, and the third is an ordinance followed by a non-binding, public advisory vote.

Golding argues that estimated tideland oil reserves are not enough to warrant drilling, and that banning onshore facilities would make it too expensive for oil companies to explore the area under any federal leasing plan.

The ban also would prevent the county from issuing permits for the construction, operation or maintenance of pipelines, refineries and other facilities needed for offshore exploration.

“The reserves are not good enough to justify the enormous risks we would be taking to the economy and with our health,” Golding said.

Williams also asked Harmon to find out whether the proposed ban could be enforced on federally owned land at North Island and Camp Pendleton. Harmon’s initial response was that it would not.

Supervisor Paul Eckert was absent from the session.