On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1448, Santa Barbara state lawmaker Gregg Hart’s latest legislative bid to hinder, if not stop, the Trump administration’s crusade to bulldoze California’s long opposition to expanded offshore oil drilling.
Hart returned to Newsmakers TV soon after, to explain the new law’s ban on oil companies using existing offshore platforms, pipelines and other infrastructure in state waters, at a time when Trump has launched a new leasing program off the California coastline.
“There’s a huge bipartisan consensus that we shouldn’t be doing additional offshore oil development in California,” he told Newsmakers. “This is really putting the roadblock in the latest Trump attempt to put our coast at risk.”
On Friday morning, the Democratic Assembly member — now seeking a third term — is scheduled to appear with prominent local environmentalists and academics to celebrate the passage and signing of his bill. It is a glimmer of good news following the White House’s order to restart offshore pumping under the specious cover of national security, including transportation of oil across Santa Barbara County through a pipeline operated by Sable Offshore that ruptured and caused the disastrous 2015 Refugio spill.
“You know, we have been playing defense on Sable and on all those other issues, but in regard to the new federal leases that the Trump administration has proposed, this legislation will effectively stop that, because it says you can’t use existing oil infrastructure,” Hart said.
In our conversation, Hart also broke down the contentious and confoundingly complex battle over Proposition 40, a proposed wealth tax on state billionaires, and Props. 41 and 42, two poison pill initiatives put on the ballot by tech oligarch Sergey Brin, aimed at preventing it from taking effect even if it passes.
Newsom signed eight of the nine bills that Hart succeeded in getting passed by both houses of the Legislature this session, including one that would take some authority over county jails away from sheriffs and give it to local boards of supervisors, as well as a measure to require health insurers to cover certain treatments for cancer patients.
Check out our conversation with Gregg Hart via YouTube below or by clicking this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on SoundCloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.