SANTA BARBARA — For decades it has been a bipartisan political staple -- the jaunt to the beaches of Santa Barbara to profess opposition to oil drilling at the spot where a massive 1969 spill despoiled sea life and ocean waters, launching the modern environmental movement.
With visits here and elsewhere, Republicans Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger used their environmental credentials to win the governor's office. George Bush the elder announced his support for a delay in oil drilling leases en route to victory in November 1988, when he became the last Republican to win the state in a presidential contest.
John McCain returned to Santa Barbara this week not to assert his opposition to offshore drilling -- as he did when he ran for president in 2000 -- but to make the calculated gamble that high gas prices have trumped voters' desire to protect the environment.
His newfound support for allowing states to decide whether to drill offshore, announced last week in Texas, carries risk. Having spent much of his campaign trying to distance himself from the current President Bush and Republican orthodoxy, McCain has now changed his tune to theirs on a hugely symbolic issue that has long helped motivate the independent voters whose support he needs to claim the White House.
Diana Cuttrell of Santa Barbara is one of them, and she fiercely opposes McCain's new stance.
"It's not going to solve the problem," she said of McCain's proposal to lift the federal moratorium on sea drilling. "It's a Band-Aid, basically. It's just pretty idiotic."
In a visit to Fresno on Monday, McCain did not bring up offshore drilling, instead emphasizing alternative energy sources such as alcohol fuels and announcing a $300-million challenge to develop a more efficient electric car battery. In response to a question, he said he still did not favor drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because it was pristine. When pressed, he declined to say whether the California coast was any less so, but argued that offshore drilling was safe.
"I envision they would be somewhat further offshore but that would be, again, a decision by the people of this state," said McCain, who has said his views changed because of the impact gas prices are having on everyday Americans and concerns about the nation's dependence on foreign powers.
