Mays to Sponsor Legislation Regulating Oil Shipping and Drilling off the Coast

On the first anniversary of the American Trader oil spill, Assemblyman Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach) announced Thursday that he will sponsor legislation to increase the state’s regulation of offshore oil transportation and drilling.

Mays said he will co-sponsor a bill to develop a safer transportation plan for oil tankers sailing in or out of state waters and another that would outlaw any new oil and gas leases in state waters off Orange, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties, except in a national emergency.

An existing state administrative regulation already forbids any new drilling off the coast of those counties, but Mays noted that putting the ban into law would make the policy more difficult to change.

The two new bills, if approved, would strengthen other laws passed by the Legislature last year in the wake of the Huntington Beach oil spill, Mays said. The laws established an oil spill cleanup fund and set up procedures by which authorities would be notified of an oil spill.

“These were laws that were significant, but they were not enough, and they were not really looking at the big picture,” Mays said.

Mays said the 1990 laws mainly concern response to a spill, while his proposals are geared toward preventing spills.

Mays spoke at a press conference on the beach about 1.3 miles from the mooring where the American Trader punctured its hull on its anchor and spilled 397,000 gallons of oil.

Mays reiterated his opposition to that offshore mooring. But he said that because Golden West Refining Co. has a lease with the State Lands Commission to use the mooring until 2005, it is not likely to be shut down soon.

A recent Times Orange County Poll found that 54% of the residents of Huntington Beach want the mooring removed. And Mays, who was mayor of Huntington Beach last year when the oil spill occurred, said he fully agrees with that majority view.

“Eliminating that mooring is my long-term goal,” Mays said.

Mayor Peter M. Green also told the press conference that he wants the Huntington Beach offshore mooring closed. Green said some oil tankers are loaded with Alaskan crude oil at ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach and then are sent to Huntington Beach to unload the oil into the refinery’s offshore pipeline. That pipeline carries the crude to Golden West Refining Co.’s refinery in Santa Fe Springs, in Los Angeles County.

Mays’ proposed legislation might change how and where oil tankers unload. He said his bill would require a state study of tanker traffic and suggested that improvements could be made part of a state “oil transportation management plan.”

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) is co-sponsoring both the drilling ban and the tanker traffic study bills, Mays said. He said Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) is also co-sponsoring the anti-offshore drilling bill.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder also spoke at the press conference and praised Mays’ proposed bills. Wieder said she hopes that if California approves an offshore drilling ban, Congress might do the same.

Opponents of offshore drilling have long argued that oil wells at sea pose a risk to nearby beaches in case of a spill. But the oil industry and other supporters of the drilling have countered that the wells are safe and urgently needed for U.S. oil production.

The Huntington Beach spill of a year ago had no connection to offshore drilling, but the incident increased fervor among environmentalists to seek a permanent ban against any more offshore oil leases.