Environment

Offshore Oil Drilling in California Waters

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published April 16, 2009 at 1:01 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar holds a public hearing in San Francisco this at nine o'clock Thursday morning to sample opinion on offshore oil drilling. If plans are approved, oil rigs could spring up in ocean waters from San Diego to Northern California. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Several environmental groups from San Diego County plan to rally outside the hearing.

Angela Howe with the Surfrider Foundation says the proposed plans include leasing drilling sites in waters off San Diego County.

Become a KPBS sponsor

"In 2015 there's almost a million acres up for lease," Howe said. "That's a proposed sale in the current plan."

She says money should be spent on renewable energy sources instead of developing offshore oil fields.

A Salazar spokesman says the Interior Secretary's plan also includes renewable energy sources, such as wind, tidal and wave power.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein says efforts to reopen the federal waters off California's coast could allow unreliable oil rigs to be as close as three miles from some beaches.

The offshore drilling proposal surfaced in the last days of the Bush Administration.

Become a KPBS sponsor

Salazar has not indicated what the Interior Department's exact policy will be on offshore oil drilling.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Environment

Ed Joyce

twitter

Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

See stories by Ed Joyce