This week, President Joe Biden announced a ban on new oil and gas drilling in federal waters along the California coast.
Jeremy Frankel with the Environmental Defense Center says it’s a win for environmentalists but will not make a difference locally.
"President Biden's order withdrew a bunch of offshore land from new drilling, but it did nothing to prevent the restart of these facilities off the Gaviota Coast, so Sable [Offshore] really is now the biggest threat facing the California coast and is the only operation that would be allowed to resume or restart operating in federal waters," Frankel said.
Sable Offshore owns the failed oil pipeline that caused the devastating Refugio oil spill in 2015. In October of this year, the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission approved the company's restart of that same pipeline.
"So we’re really concerned about the dangers of another spill," Frankel said.
In opposition to Biden’s action, President-elect Donald Trump said he would reverse the drilling ban on his first day in office.
"President Biden's actions yesterday on offshore drilling, banning offshore drilling will not stand. I will reverse it immediately. It'll be done immediately and we will drill, baby, drill," Trump said during a press conference.
"The possible economic benefits of offshore oil drilling do not outweigh the possible environmental harms and even the economic harms that come with oil spills," Frankel said.
Sable Offshore said in a statement, "President Biden’s proclamation does not affect the company’s operations."
