San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer and Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner Thursday evening used a community meeting in Encinitas to urge the public to take a stand against the Trump administration’s plans to expand offshore drilling.
The Thursday gathering followed the Nov. 20 announcement by the Trump administration that it will reopen ocean waters off the Pacific Coast to oil drilling leases, generating rapid opposition from California officials and environmentalists.
Lawson-Remer said she and others are united in defending the San Diego region, and told President Donald Trump and oil executives to “go pound sand.”
“We are not going to go backwards,” no matter how much Trump calls clean energy “a con job,” Lawson-Remer said during the meeting, organized by the environmental groups California Coastal Protection Network, Oceana, Surfrider Foundation and Wildcoast.
The announcement by the U.S. Department of the Interior called it an effort to address the nation’s “growing energy needs” and “boost United States energy independence and sustain domestic oil and gas production.”
The directive calls for the potential lease of 34 offshore drilling sites between 2026 and 2031 — 21 off the coast of Alaska, seven in the Gulf of Mexico and six along the Pacific Coast.
The public has until Jan. 23, to comment on the proposed drilling projects.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the proposal “idiotic” and said it “endangers our coastal economy and communities and hurts the well-being of Californians.”
During Thursday’s gathering at the Encinitas Community Center, Lawson- Remer mentioned how the January 1969 spill off the coast of Santa Barbara resulted in millions of gallons of oil leaking into the Pacific Ocean.
“But we were not defeated — we built a movement out of that disaster,” Lawson-Remer said, adding that wind and solar energy production costs have dropped, meaning a more affordable and cleaner future.
“I’m very heartened when I look around this room tonight, because I know that (if) Donald Trump wants to auction off our coastline — he has got to go through all of you,” Lawson-Remer said.
Heebner said she knows first-hand how interconnected the region is, and that it’s important to look out for the entirety of California.
“I was a child when the Santa Barbara spill occurred, and it was devastating,” said Heebner, who described the state’s ecosystem is one of the world’s richest.
“Why are we looking to expand oil and gas drilling anyway?” she asked. “Our coast is not for sale.”
“Hearing your voices makes all the difference in the world, and to the world,” Heebner told the more than 100 attendees.
Pete Strauffer, Surfrider‘s ocean protection manager, said the federal government has over 2,000 permits it’s not using, making offshore drilling unnecessary.
He noted that drilling involves seismic operations which are louder than a jet engine and damaging to marine life, such as humpback whales.
“But they cannot submit comments to the federal government,” so humans must be their voice, Stauffer said.
Stauffer said there’s a lot of misinformation about drilling, including the argument that it will lower gas prices, but those are set by global markets.
He added the United States has been energy-independent for the last five years.
“We’re at a point where we desperately need to transition away from oil and gas,” Stauffer said.
Stauffer added that increased offshore drilling will mean more refineries on land, usually in lower-income communities, which can in turn increase asthma and cancer rates.
Also on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and 26 other California congressional Democrats formally condemned the Trump administration’s actions.
“The plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters — including the California coast — to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years, disregarding bipartisan opposition,” according to a statement from Padilla and Huffman.
“We stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state’s invaluable, ecologically unique coast,” the lawmakers said.
“This proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless.”
In a letter sent to Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the House and Senate members wrote that California’s marine economy accounted for $51.3 billion in gross domestic product and $26.7 billion in wages in 2021.
The letter included signatures of Padilla’s U.S. Senate colleague Adam Schiff, D-California, and three San Diego-area House members, Reps. Mike Levin, D-San Clemente, Scott Peters, D-San Diego, and Juan Vargas, D-San Diego.
“Further industrialization off our coast will inevitably pollute our beaches, spelling disaster for California’s economy and detrimentally impacting the rest of the country, which relies on California as an economic engine,” according to the letter.
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