Law to Ban West Coast Oil Drilling Pushed by Garamendi

Responding to likely the worst oil spill in US history, freshman Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) is set to introduce legislation later today that would "permanently prohibit" offshore drilling all along the Pacific Coast. The brief two-page bill, which the congressman has dubbed the "West Coast Ocean Protection Act of 2010," was provided by his office to Raw Story. It seeks to "amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act" to ban oil exploration "off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington."

"If you have any doubts on the need for this legislation, there's an oil slick the size of Puerto Rico that I want to introduce you to," Garamendi said in a statement to Raw Story.

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The bill arrives just two days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, where Garamendi served as lieutenant governor until being elected to Congress last year, rescinded his support for offshore drilling and cited the "enormous disaster" in the Gulf.

"I don’t want to see this devastation in California," Garamendi continued. "My bill would re-institute the congressional moratorium on new offshore oil drilling in federal waters on the West Coast. A congressional moratorium served us well for two and a half decades."



link:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0505/garamendi-permanent-ban-west-coast-oil-drilling/

horrific when you consider how big the ocean is and how dark that water with oil is