Bush’s Left Coast Lesson

The Bush administration has freely snubbed California on environmental issues, apparently still smarting from President Bush’s big loss here to Al Gore and figuring he can get reelected without the state. Now, GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. and others must have reminded the president that the state Republican Party was all but destroyed when his father wrote off California as unwinnable in his 1992 reelection campaign. The California GOP is still trying to recover. But the president has seen some light.

On June 6, the administration gave the back of its hand to California’s suggestion that if offshore oil drilling was bad for Florida, it was bad for California too. Referring to Bush’s decision to prevent oil drilling off the Florida coast, Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton made the confounding comment that “Florida opposes coastal drilling and California does not.” Swat. Swat. Take that, California.

But two short weeks later, Bush and Norton indicated they were willing to discuss something that even most environmental groups thought impossible--getting rid of oil rigs off the California coast.

Why the turnabout? It was a visit to Bush by Simon. The wealthy conservative is attempting to position himself as even friendlier to the coastal environment than Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, a longtime foe of new drilling in coastal waters. Simon goes further, proposing to halt existing production and dismantle the rigs. Emerging from the White House Wednesday, Simon said the Bush administration was “willing to sit down and talk about these issues.”

This may all be politics, but we’ll take it. Anything that prevents any new drilling off the coast is welcome. That anyone could stop existing production is harder to believe. It would no doubt cost billions of dollars to buy the oil companies’ rigs, even if they were willing to sell. And the Bush administration would have to square that with a zealous energy policy built on extracting oil wherever it can be found, even in the pristine Alaskan Arctic. But let the talks begin.

The first item on the agenda should be to ban drilling on 36 existing leases off the Central California coast. The next item: The Bush administration should drop its appeal of a federal court ruling that gives the state virtual veto authority over new oil activity in federal waters off the California coast--anything beyond three miles out. California filed the suit to test a state’s right to protect its coastline and water and air quality under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. By appealing, the Bush administration is trying to deny California that authority.

It’s evident that someone, perhaps Simon, has convinced Bush how important a political issue the coastal environment is in California, to Republicans and Democrats. The old dictum still stands: Good policy makes good politics.