White House OKs Offshore Cordell Bank Drilling Ban

The White House has agreed to ban offshore oil and gas drilling in the entire 397-square-mile area to be designated as Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary off Northern California, Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) said today.

About one-third of the future sanctuary overlaps a vast tract of the sea floor that the federal government has previously approved for offshore oil and gas development under its so-called lease sale program.

Lease sale No. 119, which includes Cordell Bank, is scheduled to be auctioned off to the oil industry late next year. It extends along the California coast from Monterey Bay to northern Sonoma County.

The Cordell Bank seamount and 397 square miles of rich marine habitat surrounding the underwater formation are set for designation as a national marine sanctuary under regulations drafted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But the original sanctuary regulations, which were to have been signed last month, included no prohibition against oil and gas development in the area.

The only such protection was contained in the rules governing lease sale No. 119 and were limited to the 18 square miles of Cordell Bank proper.

Boxer has urged that all 397 square miles be placed off limits to oil drilling, and NOAA chief William Evans agreed with her position in a meeting with Boxer and two other California lawmakers last month.

Evans’ decision to rewrite the sanctuary regulations to include an offshore drilling ban was awaiting final approval from the White House budget office, aides to Boxer said.

She announced that the approval came today.

“I am very happy that the White House has signed off on this agreement to ban offshore oil and gas drilling in Cordell Bank,” she said in a statement.