Issue Position: Defending Sensitive Areas from Oil and Gas Drilling

Issue Position

A key element of California's diverse economy is its unparalleled stretch of coastline. Indeed, it has been the economic value of the coast that has in great part spurred the efforts to end offshore oil and gas drilling in California. I have consistently joined many of my California colleagues in Congress in opposing efforts to conduct offshore oil and gas inventories and to open these areas to drilling through legislation such as the West Coast Ocean Protection Act.

I have also opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the inclusion of drilling in ANWR in any energy legislation or budget reconciliation bill. Proponents of drilling who claim that pipelines in pristine wilderness areas are perfectly safe have been dealt a blow by the revelation of massive leakage and corrosion in BP's pipe network based in Prudhoe Bay and in the TransAlaska Pipeline.

BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

On April 20, 2010, a large explosion on British Petroleum's (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused the death of 11 crew members, injured a number of other workers, and led to the sinking of the rig two days later. Millions of gallons of crude oil contaminated the Gulf of Mexico, impacting the livelihoods of those who make their living from the Gulf's resources and endangering countless fish, plants, and wildlife in the area. The Obama Administration responded to the BP disaster and mobilized government resources to minimize the harm on the health, economy, and environment of the Gulf Coast, but damage was done that must be repaired and lessons must be learned so we don't repeat the past.

Working with my colleagues in the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, I have taken a number of steps toward ensuring that we learn from this tragedy so that it never happens again. I cosponsored legislation to establish a blue-ribbon commission to serve as an important long-term addition to the Obama Administration's short-term efforts to investigate and respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Commission would investigate the cause, response and impacts of the BP disaster, and it would make recommendations on our ability to evaluate and address the risks of offshore drilling. Furthermore, the Commission would investigate BP and other private companies involved with the spill, as well as the performance of federal and state agencies responsible for oversight of offshore drilling.

My colleagues and I have also urged the Secretary of the Interior to promptly and thoroughly investigate whether another BP platform in the Gulf, the BP Atlantis, is currently operating safely and adhering to the law. In March 2009, a whistleblower notified MMS that he believed BP lacked a large percentage of engineer-approved, up-to-date drawings for Atlantis's subsea components. A review of a BP database shows that of the more than 7,176 documents and drawings for Atlantis's subsea components, a total of 6,393 of them -- over 90% -- had not been approved by a professional engineer, as required by industry minimum standards and MMS regulations. A 2008 email from BP's own management indicated that using these incomplete or inaccurate documents "could lead to catastrophic Operator errors due to their assuming the drawing is correct." A thorough investigation of BP Atlantis must include interviewing the whistleblower and other BP employees, including the ombudsman, as well as examining whether the company properly responded to the whistleblower's concerns. Lessons learned will help shed light on how the company views safety requirements for very complex platforms operating in challenging deep water environments. It could even shed light on the cause of the Deepwater Horizon accident.

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