Leaving old drilling-rig pieces in the ocean has big support in Legislature

Assembly Speaker John A. Perez is championing the plan. It would save oil companies hundreds of millions and, proponents say, create marine habitat.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times
LA Times
July 11, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento

A plan to let oil companies leave large parts of decommissioned drilling rigs in the ocean off California's coast, saving them hundreds of millions of dollars, is sailing through the Legislature at a time when the Gulf of Mexico spill has made the industry politically toxic.

The "rigs to reef" idea, which proponents say would create marine habitat, has been around for more than a decade. Former Gov. Gray Davis vetoed such a proposal in 2001, citing a lack of proof that abandoned oil rigs help the environment.

The natural science on the issue is still being debated, but the political science has swung in the oil companies' favor: Their unlikely patron is powerful Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, a labor leader from East Los Angeles whose district has no coastline and who has proposed a new tax on oil companies to help close the state's budget deficit.

(More here.)