Letter to the Hon. Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior and Walter Cruickshank, Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managment - Allow Californians to Comment on Offshore Drilling Proposal

Letter

Dear Mr. Secretary Zinke and Acting Director Dr. Cruickshank:

We write to urge you to add two more public meetings in California to the schedule of public meetings as part of the public comment period for the proposed 2019-2024 National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The public meetings offered around the country are a critical opportunity for citizens to learn about and comment on the Department of the Interior's five year plan.

Currently, the only scheduled public meeting in California is in Sacramento on February 8th, 2018. However, due to the size of the state, California encompasses three of the Draft Proposed Program Areas: Northern California, Central California, and Southern California. Residents in the northern coastal city of Crescent City would have to travel nearly 400 miles to participate in the public meeting, while residents of San Diego in the southern part of the state would have to travel over 500 miles. If the Department of Interior seeks to adequately provide access to these public meetings, there should be at least one meeting held in each of the Draft Proposed Program Areas.

Given the geographical nature of the proposed leasing program, it is important to provide adequate access to the public meetings for each of the impacted regions. In order to afford our constituents this opportunity, we urge the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to add public meetings in the Northern and Southern California Draft Proposed Program Areas.

Sincerely,