California politicians and local activists heavily criticized the Trump administration’s plan to lease coastal waters for offshore drilling today at a standing-room only community meeting.Held at the Wharfinger Building Sunday morning, over 100 people attended. It was hosted by the Surfrider Foundation, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), and Humboldt Waterkeeper. Attendees were encouraged to fill out postcards pre-addressed to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum with their hostility to offshore oil drilling.Politicians from every level of government spoke for an hour, all of them to voice their opposition to the scheme: in attendance was Representative Jared Huffman, state assemblymembers Chris Rogers and Damon Connelly, Humboldt County Supervisor Mike Wilson, Eureka city councilmembers Kati Moulton and Leslie Castellano, and a smattering of other local bigwigs and activists. Huffman, Rogers and Connelly have attended several similar meetings along the California coast in the last few days.They highlighted the negative environmental impacts of Trump’s plan, who said in November he wants to open up millions of acres along the West Coast and Florida to oil companies. Trump claims that drilling will bolster the economy, creating more jobs and lowering gas prices. Speakers focused on the potentially drastic, negative effects drilling has on the environment, as well as the devastation overusing fossil fuels is already causing to the climate and coastal communities. Many of them mentioned past oil spills that killed untold amounts of marine life and polluted waterways for years, like the 1989 Exxon Valdez, 1969 Santa Barbara, and 2015 Refugio spills.“Thousands of pounds of toxic sludge are released due to routine operations of these facilities,” said EPIC climate attorney Matt Simmons. “I look out at Humboldt Bay, and I shudder to think about what a similar disaster would be for our community, for the jobs, the livelihoods, the cultures that all depend on the bay.”Keep Reading
