OLYMPIA – Governor Jay Inslee, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., and Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued the following statement today in response to a presidential executive order to revise offshore oil and gas leasing in federal waters:
“Today’s unilateral action is short-sighted. For good reason there has been no federal expansion of oil and gas drilling along our shared coastline for more than 30 years. We still remember what happened in Santa Barbara in 1969, Port Angeles in 1985, Grays Harbor in 1988 and Coos Bay in 1999. We remember the oil soaked beaches and wildlife and the devastating economic impacts to local communities and the fishing industry. Now is not the time to turn back the clock. We cannot return to the days where the federal government put the interests of big oil above our communities and treasured coastline."