Huffman Urges Obama to Ban New West Coast Drilling
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman today brought back legislation that would ban new gas or oil drilling leases off the West Coast in a move his office said would help permanently protect the environment, jobs and coastal economies.
Huffman was joined by 14 other lawmakers in reintroducing the West Coast Ocean Protection Act on the first day of the 115th Congress while Sen. Dianne Feinstein was joined by her colleagues from California, Oregon and Washington in doing the same in the Senate.
According to a release from Huffman's office, the legislation would "amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit new oil or natural gas leases in federal waters off the coast of the continental U.S., from Mexico to Canada."
"A true ‘America first’ energy policy keeps oil off our beaches and invests in home-grown renewable sources of power," Huffman states in the release. "I urge President Obama to take action now, while he still has the authority to do so, to permanently protect our oceans from oil and gas drilling.”
By: Kimberly Wear
Source: North Coast Journal of Politics, People and Art