"Richard Charter of Bodega Bay has spent his adult life protecting coasts and oceans, especially from the ravages of energy extraction. When crude oil starts pouring into the sea, his phone tends to go off - as it did around 3 a.m. on an April morning in 2010, following an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico."
"It happened again in the small hours of Oct. 2, when a plume of oil reached the surface of the Pacific Ocean a few miles off the coast of Huntington Beach. That 25,000-gallon spill, from a ruptured underwater pipeline, fouled 16 miles of Orange County beaches, with oil washing ashore as far south as San Diego. "I always seem to get the call in the middle of the night," said Charter, who now works with municipalities up and down the California coast, helping coordinate their response to offshore drilling threats."
"That group is on high alert following a recent Houston Chronicle story revealing Trump administration plans to open large swathes of the California coast to offshore drilling. A list of scheduled West Coast lease auctions for oil and gas drilling obtained by the Chronicle raises the possibility, said Charter, that Trump's Interior Department could try to roll back protections for national marine sanctuaries formed after 2008."
Richard Charter has spent his adult life protecting coasts and oceans from energy extraction and responds to offshore oil incidents. He received calls after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and after an Oct. 2 rupture that released 25,000 gallons, fouling 16 miles of Orange County beaches and reaching as far as San Diego. Charter now works with municipalities along the California coast to coordinate responses to offshore drilling threats. Leaked Interior Department documents outline a draft plan for West Coast lease auctions and raise the prospect of rolling back protections for national marine sanctuaries near Sonoma and Mendocino, putting communities on high alert.
Read at The Mercury News
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