State Lands Slams Governor’s Bid to Bring Back PXP Project

BY ANNE SOBLE

The State Lands Commission minced no words responding to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to reverse the panel’s rejection of the first new oil drilling proposed for off the California coast in 40 years.
Meeting in Santa Monica this week, the commission passed a resolution urging legislators not to go along with Schwarzenegger’s back door bid to revive the controversial Plains Exploration and Production, or PXP, drilling project off the Santa Barbara County coast that the commission majority killed in January.
Under the PXP plan, the firm sought to drill into state waters from a platform it owns in federal waters beyond the three-mile limit. In return, the company made legally challengeable offers to close down that platform and others by 2022, as well as donate 4000 acres of land for public use.
Malibu environmentalists were among those who lobbied against the original PXP proposal, and they supported SLC members Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and state Controller John Chiang in opposing the governor’s latest effort.