Dannemeyer Scolds Offshore Drilling Foes

If the oil industry is to win a public relations war with environmental “grass-eaters and daisy-pickers,” it must persuade average Americans that offshore drilling creates jobs and promotes energy independence, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) said in a weekend speech.

Referring to the environmentalists, Dannemeyer said: “These Good Neighbor ‘Scams’ are the same ones (who) lock up the California coastline to further development only after they have ensured their own beachfront properties. The average citizen will understand this hypocrisy and will most likely tell these ‘eco-nuts’ to get a real job.”

Dannemeyer made the remarks Saturday in San Francisco to the board of directors of the National Ocean Industries Assn., a trade group that represents about 330 firms directly and indirectly engaged in offshore drilling. A copy of Dannemeyer’s remarks was released Monday in Washington.

The conservative congressman was one of four members of a panel that discussed the role that offshore oil drilling should play in the nation’s energy policy. Other members included California Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), a critic of offshore drilling, and representatives of Chevron Corp. and the Natural Resources Defense Council, a major environmental group.

Congress earlier this year put a moratorium on offshore drilling along much of the nation’s coast, including off Orange County and most of Southern California. It is scheduled to remain in effect until next October at least. Since 1981, Congress has annually imposed drilling moratoriums along the northern and southern coasts of California.

A Cabinet-level task force in January is scheduled to recommend to President Bush whether to proceed with plans to grant drilling leases at three sites off the coasts of Florida and California, including one tract off Orange County. Shell Oil Corp. and Unocal currently operate four deep-water drilling platforms in federal waters between nine and 12 miles off the county’s coast.

A longtime advocate of drilling for oil in the outer continental shelf, Dannemeyer told the trade association board that the environmental movement has successfully made its case against drilling by mounting a massive campaign of fund raising, advertising and lobbying.

In fact, Dannemeyer said, the ecological dangers posed by offshore drilling platforms are minimal.

“We have a well-financed, active army of environmental grass-roots driven by a deeply embedded ideology vs. an under-utilized sleeping army of consumers, (oil industry) employees and oil businesses,” Dannemeyer said.

“It is time for the industry to go on the offensive and take (its) case to the people. The average citizen must be told that while he must suffer the consequences of energy dependence and oil shortages, the grass-eaters and daisy-pickers who created these political dilemmas will always make sure their cars start in the morning.”

But Laguna Beach Mayor Robert F. Gentry, a longtime opponent of offshore oil drilling, accused Dannemeyer of “grossly underestimating” the potential impact of oil drilling off Southern California. He added that the congressman refuses to listen to warnings from federal experts, including what he said were U.S. Department of the Interior predictions of a “75% chance of a 1,000-barrel or more oil spill” in the next several years.

“The federal government is telling us there is risk,” Gentry said. “So why doesn’t Mr. Dannemeyer know that?”

Newport Beach City Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart, another offshore oil drilling opponent, said the “risks are too great” to allow exploration and production of oil along Orange County’s 42-mile coastline. The greatest impact, she said, would be on the region’s already polluted skies. Studies have shown that the diesel-powered platforms would release large amounts of nitrogen oxides and particulates.

“The quantity and quality of oil off Orange County’s coast is just not worth the adverse impact that would result,” Hart said.

David B. Goldstein, a senior staff scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Monday that he told the drillers that the least expensive and most efficient way to reduce dependence on foreign oil is through conservation, not offshore drilling.

For example, Goldstein said, improving the energy efficiency of household refrigerators would, over the next 23 years, save an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of oil. The cost of saving that much oil is far less than pumping an equivalent amount from reserves in the outer continental shelf, he said.

Miller, chairman of the House Interior Committee’s subcommittee on water, power and offshore energy, generally agreed with Goldstein. For example, Miller said, imposition of a gasoline mileage standard of 40 miles per gallon on the highway and 30 in the city would save 7.5 billion barrels of oil over the next 20 years.

“If the oil industry were up on the Hill lobbying to raise mileage standards, their arguments that (outer continental shelf) development is important to our national energy posture would have more credibility,” Miller said in remarks prepared for the Saturday meeting.

Staff writer Steven R. Churm in Orange County contributed to this story.