Oil Drilling

In the wake of a huge oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) is expected to lead a hearing Friday in Hermosa Beach on the state's ability to help cities challenge massive oil-drilling projects near homes, schools and parks. Among those called to testify before the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, which Nava chairs, are officials from Hermosa Beach, Culver City and Carpinteria, which are involved in costly legal battles over drilling.

WASHINGTON — Days after the Obama administration approved Royal Dutch Shell's oil spill response plan for drilling in Arctic waters off the Alaska coast, an independent federal report said that Shell's plan fails to take into account the risks unique to oil production in harsh, icy offshore conditions. After years of delays, Shell's plan to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea as early as this summer has gained momentum as it won necessary permits from the Interior Department.

One of the last significant hurdles to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has been cleared with approval of a plan for dealing with a nightmare scenario - an oil spill at the top of the world. The Obama administration on Friday approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.'s plan for responding to an accident should it occur in the Chukchi Sea. The company hopes to begin exploratory drilling there, 70 miles off the northwest coast of Alaska, in June. The issue of how to clean up a spill in the remote waters, 1,000 miles from the nearest U.S. Coast Guard base, has proved to be the biggest impediment to opening the most significant new frontier in U.S. energy development.

An attempt to roll back oil company tax breaks was blocked in the Senate, despite a Rose Garden push by President Obama, who said the big five oil companies are doing “just fine” as consumers struggle with painfully high gas prices at the pump. Republicans led opposition to the measure, but several Democrats from oil-rich states joined the GOP in a filibuster to prevent the legislation from advancing. The vote was 51-47, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the GOP was "poised to pick the pockets of American taxpayers to line the pockets of these oil executives.

President Obama's decision to have Interior Secretary Ken Salazar open vast new areas of federal ocean waters to offshore oil drilling is no surprise. In his State of the Union address, the president explained that his vision for a clean energy future included offshore drilling, nuclear power and clean coal. Unfortunately, that's like advocating a healthy diet based on fast-food snacking, amphetamines and low-tar cigarettes. If the arguments you hear in the coming days for expanded drilling sound familiar, it's because they've been repeated for generations.

A few years ago, Occidental Petroleum Corp. executive Stephen I. Chazen sounded like a cryptologist out of a Dan Brown novel as he told investors that an oil bonanza awaited any outfit that could "crack the code" of California's seismically fractured underground. Occidental's engineers may have done it. The Westwood company revealed in July that it had found the equivalent of 150 million to 250 million barrels of oil and natural gas in an undisclosed part of Kern County using techniques that the oil company's executives would rather not talk about.

Re "Oil Drilling Battle Looms Over Tracts Off Central Coast," June 7. When it comes down to choosing between $2 a gallon for gas and having more drilling platforms off the California coast, I'll take the platforms any day. Our coast is no more environmentally sensitive than the Gulf of Mexico coast, and they seem to be doing fine. NORMAN HEATH, Oxnard

In a legal battle that pits old industrial uses against urbanization, Culver City is challenging an environmental impact report approved by Los Angeles County that could allow 600 new wells to be drilled in a local oil field over the next 20 years. A week ago, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant upheld Culver City's 6-month-old moratorium on new drilling in the northern section of the 85-year-old Inglewood Oil Field, which is within city limits. City officials said the moratorium was needed to provide time for development of new drilling regulations aimed at addressing health issues.

With images of the Gulf Coast oil spill still fresh in voters' minds, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer campaigned in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, arguing that Carly Fiorina's support for additional oil drilling off California's coast could threaten the jobs of nearly 400,000 workers whose livelihoods depend on the coastal economy. Deliberately making an economic argument as well as an environmental one, Boxer spoke before a backdrop of blue and yellow kayaks at a small adventure touring company where the owner introduced her by asking the audience to imagine how their lives would change if "the devastation in the Gulf Coast were happening here.

The State Lands Commission on Monday lashed out at an attempt by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow the first new oil drilling in California waters since 1969. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, chairman of the three-member panel, called the governor's effort "a naked power grab."

Reporting from Goleta, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday that he was taking a closer look at a controversial method of oil extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," as he seeks to help California maintain its role as one of the country's top crude producers. Speaking to business leaders at a renewable energy conference in Goleta, Brown said he was studying fracking, which oil companies are touting as a potential key to tapping previously unreachable deposits in the Golden State.

President Obama traveled to one of the nation's oil transportation hubs, offering what administration officials hope voters will see as a centrist alternative to the polarized debate over the Keystone XL pipeline — and quickly drew fire from activists on both sides. Earlier this year, Obama deferred the building of a pipeline from Canada's tar sands to the Gulf Coast through environmentally sensitive parts of the Midwest. On Thursday, he said his administration would expedite construction of the southern part of the route, starting in Cushing, Okla.

Struggling with rising prices at the pump, Americans are voicing a greater willingness to develop domestic fossil fuels than they did just a year ago, according to a new poll. Support for offshore oil drilling has bounced back to levels seen before the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to the new survey by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press.  Almost two-thirds (65%) back the expansion of offshore drilling, compared with 57% a year ago and 44% in June 2010, during the gulf spill.  Conducted from March 7 to March 11, the survey interviewed 1,503 adults who were just about evenly split among Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

With the Mississippi and Alabama primaries now two days away, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich tussled on Sunday over which Republican presidential hopeful would adhere most faithfully to conservative orthodoxy on fiscal restraint, healthcare and oil drilling. Both also took swipes at GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney, whose heavy advertising has made the pivotal Deep South contests fiercely competitive despite both states' cultural dissonance with the former Massachusetts governor.

One of the last significant hurdles to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic has been cleared with approval of a plan for dealing with a nightmare scenario - an oil spill at the top of the world. The Obama administration on Friday approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.'s plan for responding to an accident should it occur in the Chukchi Sea. The company hopes to begin exploratory drilling there, 70 miles off the northwest coast of Alaska, in June. The issue of how to clean up a spill in the remote waters, 1,000 miles from the nearest U.S. Coast Guard base, has proved to be the biggest impediment to opening the most significant new frontier in U.S. energy development.

After Congress pushed the nation to the verge of catastrophe last year by delaying a deal to raise the debt ceiling until the eleventh hour, our capacity to be surprised by that body's irresponsible gamesmanship was somewhat diminished. And yet, we still can't help but be awe-struck by the mess the House of Representatives is preparing to make of the federal transportation bill, a key legislative priority for both parties. On Tuesday, the House Republican leadership unveiled its version of the five-year bill.

A Texas oil company's campaign to drill the first new wells in 40 years off the California coast continues despite setbacks in both the Legislature and at a key regulatory agency. The measure, which passed the state Senate but failed in the Assembly in August, would authorize drilling from an existing maritime platform in state waters off the northern Santa Barbara County coast. Supporters now hope for action this fall. Boosters of the project say state government stands to get an estimated $14 billion in potential new money to run schools, build prisons and strengthen a tattered social-welfare safety net. But opponents say they worry about the possibility of an oil spill that could threaten the California coast, an internationally renowned tourism magnet.