Folks,

We wanted to share this headline with you from earlier today: Bill to End Offshore Oil Drilling in CA Waters Passes First Major Legislative Hurdle

SACRAMENTO, CA — New oil leases for offshore oil and gas drilling have been banned in California waters for decades, but the oil industry can keep drilling in state waters 3 miles and less from shore under existing leases. Senator Dave Min’s Senate Bill (SB) 559 seeks to change this situation by requiring the California State Lands Commission to take immediate steps to terminate the remaining leases for offshore oil drilling in California state waters.

The bill passed out of its first legislative committee earlier this week. The State Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, chaired by Senator Min, approved the measure by a 7-3 vote. “As the 2021 oil spill off the coast of Orange County starkly illustrated (as did the 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill), offshore drilling poses a clear and immediate threat to our beautiful beaches and our vibrant $44 billion a year coastal economy,” said Senator Min.

“These offshore oil rigs, which were built between the 1960s and 1980s, are long past their shelf life, and the wildcat oil companies that now operate these rigs have no incentives to invest meaningfully in their safety and soundness. We simply cannot afford to have more oil spills, and SB 559 provides an immediate pathway towards shutting these offshore oil platforms down. Thank you to my colleagues in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee for their support of SB 559,” he argued.

Bills like these are why Sierra Club gave Dave a 100% rating for his advocacy in the California Senate! Check out the rest of his endorsements here.

Dave has spent his career fighting on behalf of working families, and championing the issues Orange Country residents care about: the environment, abortion and contraceptive freedom, and gun violence prevention. If you're with Dave, and want to help keep CA-47 Blue, would you consider endorsing his campaign for Congress? We need you now more than ever!

If the environment is a key issue for you in 2024, click here to endorse Dave Min for CA-47!

Thanks for all you do!

- Team Min