Just days after a nationwide public comment period closed on a draft federal offshore drilling plan — one that drew more than 270,000 responses — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) opened a new 30-day window.
This time, the agency is inviting oil and gas companies to nominate specific blocks of ocean off Central and Southern California for potential leasing.
For environmental advocates who had just packed Santa Barbara’s the Community Environmental Council’s Hub in downtown Santa Barbara last month in opposition to the draft five-year leasing program, the move felt abrupt…