Pleasanton, CA -- Rep. Richard Pombo is leading the charge to open California's coasts to offshore drilling. Pombo's bill lifts the 25-year-old bipartisan moratorium on off-shore drilling and opens the door for oil rigs to be built as close as three miles from U.S. shores. The bill also forces states that want to protect their coasts to jump through hoops and petition every five years to reinstate the ban in their waters.

"Richard Pombo has done it again. He has sold out the best interests of the people of California to the oil industry. Pombo's dangerous offshore drilling bill is another example of how deep in the pocket of Big Oil he actually is," said Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

The oil and gas industry already has access to a vast amount of acreage of the Outer Continental Shelf, but they have developed only a fraction of it. In fact, although more than 40 million acres of the federal Outer Continental Shelf are under lease, less than 7 million of those acres (less than 20%) are in production. The oil and gas industry is sitting on more than 33 million acres of undeveloped leases.

"This bill is purely a giveaway to already profit-laden oil companies," said Schlickeisen. "Oil companies already have access to more offshore resources than they can drill. We have the ingenuity and know-how to meet our nation's energy needs without endangering our coasts. We just need leaders willing to put the country's needs above the profits of Big Oil and get it done."

"Richard Pombo has taken over $230,000 in contributions from the oil and gas industry. Those contributions obviously were more important to Mr. Pombo than the protection of California's beautiful and fragile coastline. It's time the citizens of the 11th District had a representative that put their interests first and made the oil industry clean up their act. This November, voters will get that chance."
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The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund www.defendersactionfund.org provides a powerful voice in Washington to Americans who value our conservation heritage. Through grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy and political campaigns, the Action Fund champions those laws and lawmakers that protect wildlife and wild places while working against those that do them harm.