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Kitchen Table Kibitzing November 2, 2025 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-11-02  

Spill

It was early 1969 and I was moving to California. I drove with my Dad in my Volvo P1800, from New Jersey to our destination in Mill Valley. We had read about an oil spill in Santa Barbara, so we stopped there to see. The pristine beaches were covered with nasty blobs of what looked like tar. It was ugly and focussed our minds on a problem of which we had been mostly unaware. At the time of the Santa Barbara Channel Oil Spill, it was the largest oil spill in U.S. waters, spewing more than four million gallons of oil.

Seeing this at the same time as moving to enlightened hippie California set my environmental awareness in motion, as it did for the whole environmental movement. The Santa Barbara oil spill was an important impetus for the first Earth Day and a series of bedrock environmental laws that followed in the early 1970s. Every year, the Office of Response and Restoration responds to over 150 oil and chemical spills in U.S. waters.

The California coast, and the entire west coast, is a beautiful treasure, not only for its scenic value, but for tourism, thriving waterfronts. commercial and recreational fishing. The California Coastal Commission has protected our coast for decades, up against forces that want to exploit it.

The headline in our local paper this morning is “Fight Renews Over Offshore Drilling,” Not surprisingly, the trump administration plans to open large swaths of the California coast to offshore drilling. We are girding our loins to fight any drilling. Much of the federal waters off the coast enjoy protected status as national marine sanctuaries. Who would be surprised to see the administration simply ignore the bedrock rules on which we depend?

In our experience, nearly everyone takes all visitors to the coast. Heavily visited by locals all year, and in the summer, from inland California, as a place to cool off. We prefer our salmon oil-free.

North Coast

GG Bridge

From the parking lot at Bodega Bay

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