Offshore oil drilling more palatable to Californians

The idea of opening California's coast to more offshore oil drilling has long been considered the Third Rail of state politics: Touch it at your peril.

Or is it?

A new poll suggests that a slim majority of Californians now favors more oil drilling off the coast, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The nonpartisan research organization reports today that 51% of residents polled favor more offshore drilling, up from 41% in favor last year.

Spiraling gasoline prices seem to be at play. The institute's survey results also raise the question as to whether the offshore oil push by President Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain is resonating with the public. Democrats call this political posturing and point to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that concludes that any new offshore drilling would take a decade or more to get underway and even then would have a negligible effect on gas prices.

The poll shows the partisan breakdown in the gusher of new support for offshore drilling. A total of 77% of Republicans favor more drilling, up from 60% in 2007. For independents, it's 44%, compared with 33% a year before. Most Democrats remained opposed. A mere 35% would bless more drilling, compared with 29% a year ago.

"Tough economic times have not diminished the importance of environmental issues for Californians," said Mark Baldassare, president of the institute. "The environment is seen as a matter of health and well-being, and residents don't want to cut corners there."

Eight of 10 Californians believe immediate action should be taken against global warming, and majorities of both parties believe the state should implement the state law that sets goals to slash greenhouse gases, despite a faltering economy.

The same poll revealed that 3 of 4 Californians complain that higher gasoline prices have caused a financial hardship and many are changing their behavior. Californians report that they are driving less, and 74% are considering buying a more fuel-efficient car the next time they go to the dealership -- all of which will help curb greenhouse gas emissions.

-- Kenneth R. Weiss

Photo of oil platforms off Huntington Beach by Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[I hate LA times!]

What a shame LA times and John Mcsame are selling lame idea to the least denominator of the society! drilling wont help overnight!. Instead ask oil companies to declare how much oil they have in stock!

[I hate LA times!]

What a shame LA times and John Mcsame are selling lame idea to the least denominator of the society! drilling wont help overnight!. Instead ask oil companies to declare how much oil they have in stock!

[Anthony]

No way! Drilling off the coast is just like giving a drug abuser more drugs.

Oil is the problem .. not the solution.

We need to get off it now before it consumes us and we continue to grow more dependent on it. This oil debacle is exactly what we need to wake up to, and finally learn that Oil will not benefit us in the future.

[g schrams]

Why don't newspapers higher some real reporters that will go out in the field and find out what is going on. Pollsters are nothing but desk jockeys that spend their days making phone calls and have no idea what the real world is all about

[arnold sens]

There are two great times to plant a shade tree- today and 20 years ago. Securing an energy source could be considered the same.

[Michael]

The results of this poll are due to the endless meme put out by the media that off shore drilling is a solution to our energy problems. Non stop for the last 6 months. If the media always framed "off shore drilling" with: Pollution and images of actual offshore drilling polution, dead and dying fish and fowl, big energy companies and their 6 billion dollar windfall profits, global energy companies... i.e offshore drilling doesn't help America because oil is a globally traded commodity, and other failed energy policies (this is more of what got us here in the first place,) you'd see those numbers tip way in the other direction. It should still be considered the third rail. I'm going to make sure anyone who touches my California coastline will pay for it with his political career. You can say yes in a poll, but my actions will outdo 1,000 poll takers.

[greg]

"are considering buying a more fuel-efficient car the next time they go to the dealership -- all of which will help curb greenhouse gas emissions." ?????

Amazing how the reporting goes from polling numbers and a fact based story to suddenly injecting the above LA Times AGENDA based quote at the end.

No wonder the LA Times has to rent out parking space in their parking structure. We really do get tired of your OPINION / AGENDA showing up in your News(?)..

I am waiting till I can rent out the second floor of the Times building for storage.

[Brien Comerford]

I'm surprised that green Californians are receptive to environmentally perilous off shore oil drilling. The greedy and despotic oil companies own millions of acres of land where they still have not drilled. A vote for off shore oil drilling is a vote for McCain's energy policies.

[sheila]

people are panicking, thanks to 6 decades of lies and manipulation by our Big Energy owned government. the wasteful overconsumption model has been built on a house of cards (cheap ubiquitous energy) that has poisoned our planet and now will lead us to poison it more to try and keep the snowball frozen in hell.

we need to get a grip. if 10% of the technological enterprise used to evolve cellphones had been applied to create painless conservation/efficiency advances in vehicles, appliances, buildings and smart grid applications over the past 15 years, we would be completely FINE.

as arnold says above, sure it would have been better to have started this 35 years ago (hey, we can't say Carter didn't try!!!), but we sure as hell better start now...

conservation. point of use renewable generation. storage/smart grid. now. no desert kill-offs. no offshore poisoning. no soot-production from unneeded peaker gas plants in poor neighborhoods. all that money needs to go into conservation, point of use renewable generation and storage/smart grids.

[stan derrin]

The us coast guard says on their website that they know of 7 million gallons of oil being released into the gulf after katrina.
Offshore drilling is an extremely toxic and hazardous operation.Why and how people have suddenly started to think drilling is clean and safe is absurd.
Oil drilling in the ocean bed always releases oil directly into the water.Never mind all the other waste and by-products that are thrown in the water with no oversight/regulation etc.

Besides offshore exploration will have NOT reduce the price of oil.
The huge demand from china,india,asia will offset any large or puny oil discoveries.
Oil price is set by international committee(opec).
As well offshore drilling will not produce anything for a minimum of 6yrs...

Why doesnt the media pound away at these facts?

Some people and media seem to think that if somebody finds oil offshore that the company will sell it at some discount out of patriotic duty.
Oil companies are not charities.They sell to the highest bidder.

[David Morgan]

It is the height of lunacy to view the rest of the planet's oil as nothing more important than providing lazy and unimaginitive people with an outmoded, dirty and globally damaging method of driving two blocks for a gallon of milk. Oil may become extraordinarily valuable for an as yet unknown challenge we may face in the next ten, twenty, or 100 years. Green energy ought to be pursued for whatever it costs and leave the world's precious oil reserves in the earth for safe-keeping until we may need it the most.

[aullman]

Everyone is an environmentalist when the price of gas is $2/gal. People’s attitudes change when faced with $4 gas.

Drilling is only a partial solution. All that gas that is pumped will immediately be consumed unless people learn to use oil more efficiently.

The streets are gridlocked with commuters. To cut down on fuel consumption, government and private industry should support efforts to allow workers to work remotely. The fuel savings and time savings would be tremendous. Workers that don’t have adequate facilities to work from home should be allowed to work from Remote Office Centers. Remote Office Centers lease individual offices, internet and phone systems to workers from multiple companies in shared centers located near where people live. There is a free web site for people interested in finding a center near them:

http://www.remoteofficecenters.com

Drilling would definitely provide additional oil, but we need to make sure we are using the oil we have in the most efficient way possible. Hundreds of thousands of people driving back and forth to work each day (sometimes an hour each way) is not nearly as efficient as working remotely – either from home or from a remote office down the street.

It is time to start working more effectively and efficiently with the resources that are available to us. Every gallon of gas that is put into a gas tank is gas that is not coming back – unless you have some spare dinosaurs and are willing to wait a couple of million years.

[George]

David Morgan,
Green energy is being used in many EU countries, the techniques are there, it just that the USA is doing a waiting game, waiting to see, dont know what, but they are still waiting, and the longer they wait it will be much more difficult to catch up with the rest of us. All that Washington can think of is cheap energy, fossil fuel energy. Fossil fueled energy is not cheap, and will never ever be cheap. The only cheap energy for the future will be wind, solar and geo. But trying to get the message thru to the thickheads in W. DC, its just not possible.

[energymv]

First, most of the technically recoverable, undiscovered offshore oil and natural gas resources are currently open to oil and gas companies for leasing and drilling.

Second, in addition to the technically recoverable, undiscovered oil and natural gas resources that are available for development, as of October 2, 2006 there were 3,911 active oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Third, total domestic production in the U.S. (i.e. offshore and onshore) is projected at 6 million barrels per day of oil, and 19 trillion ft^3 per year of natural gas, by 2030; so the overall projected increase in domestic production from increased access to offshore oil and natural gas — 0.2 mmbpd more oil and 0.6 trillion ft^3 more gas — would only provide the U.S. with approximately 3% more oil and 3% more natural gas by 2030.

One other precaution according to the EIA, the average field size in the Pacific and Atlantic regions tends to be smaller than the average in the Gulf of Mexico. This implies that a significanct portion of the newly available fields in the OCS access case would provide less attractive return on investments than fields that are already available for exploration in the western and central Gulf of Mexico. There is a good discussion ongoing at http://energyanalysis.org

[Payday Loan Advocate]

I watched the latest debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Although the “town-hall”-style TV debate attracted more than 60 million viewers, the majority were not satisfied with countless indirect answers to many of the questions that were asked that night. Instead of providing firm resolution for the well-being of all Americans, they hope to bring on a larger number of citizens to take sides by means of personal criticism. McCain continued to proclaim his “stay the course” stance on Iraq and his oil drilling policies. On the other hand, Obama carried on criticizing Republican policies that he claimed have led to America’s current recession. This unremitting action of theirs only leaves us wondering exactly how either of them would work to prevent further economic catastrophes. America needs a logical economic proposal. Obama encourages the scheme to wipe out the payday loan industry, which is not a logical solution to the real economic problems we face. This is only to add more flavors for the banking and credit union appetizer.

[oilfield equipment sales]

we need to start drilling offshore in the u.s. We need to get away from the middle east. Lets start drilling we need too.

oilfield equipment sales