Protecting San Diego's Coast

On Friday, January 6, 2017, WILDCOAST joined San Diego Councilmembers Barbara Bry  and Lorie Zapf, and other conservation organizations, to urge President Obama to protect the coast of San Diego from any future offshore drilling. Recent efforts to prevent the Pacific region’s outer continental waters from oil and gas development have so far yielded only temporary protection. 

“California has the world’s largest integrated network of marine protected areas. It would be absolutely devastating to the wildlife that thrives in these places and to our collective efforts to protect them if they were undermined by an environmental disaster such as an oil spill”, Zach Plopper, WILDCOAST’s Conservation Director said. “Now we have an opportunity to add the protections to the MPAs necessary to ensure their long term effectiveness,” he continued

Oil spill disasters are no strangers to the California coast. In 2015, an offshore drilling line ruptured in Goleta spilling over 142,000 gallons of oil on to local beaches, impacting wildlife and local MPAs. And there was of course the tragic 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara that dumped three million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific. Disasters like these cost the state millions of dollars to clean up and have long term impacts on ecosystems, wildlife, communities and regional economies.  

Today, Councilmember Bry and Zapf will send a  letter to President Obama asking him to impose a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling off our coast.

Want to get involved?

Sign the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-coastal-drilling

Call your local representatives: City councilmembers and Congressional representatives.

Share this post on your social media and tag @POTUS on twitter or President Obama on Facebook or email 

Use the hashtag #nofoffshoredrillingSD.
Let’s protect the golden coast!