Long Beach : Mayor Questions Plan for More Offshore Oil Drilling
Mayor Ernie Kell last week raised questions about a plan to increase offshore oil drilling in Long Beach.
The proposal, made by the Atlantic Richfield Co., calls for the company to abandon controversial oil exploration off the coast of Santa Barbara in exchange for the right to double the number of offshore wells in Long Beach.
City officials have welcomed the plan, saying the drilling would be environmentally sound and would pump money into the city’s impoverished Tidelands Fund.
But Kell, speaking at a budget hearing on the fund last week, expressed some doubts about the scheme. “I have a little difficulty seeing how 300 more wells out here can increase our environmental sensitivity,” he said. He also questioned whether the Tidelands Fund would actually receive the $1 million a year cited in an Assembly bill that would authorize the drilling plan.
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