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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors today took a stand against offshore oil drilling and deep sea mining, though it was hardly unanimous.

Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson brought forward a draft resolution to the board for approval. In introducing it he argued that it’s important to reiterate opposition to these disruptive and polluting industries given President Donald Trump’s recent signing of an executive order to expand offshore oil drilling. 

As noted in yesterday’s meeting preview, former President Joe Biden withdrew 625 million acres of federal waters from oil development, effectively banning new drilling along U.S. coastlines. However, Trump’s order repealed that move, and U.S. District Court Judge James Cain later ruled that the Biden administration had exceeded its authority.

Wilson noted that Humboldt County has previously taken a stand against offshore oil drilling and deep sea mining. He asked his colleagues to reiterate that position and to join like-minded local governments in an endeavor called “the Local Government Outer Continental Shelf Coordination Program and Coalition,” which aims to streamline engagement with the federal government. 

Wilson said the resolution “speaks for itself,” but First District Supervisor Rex Bohn questioned the need for such a measure.

“There hasn’t been anything done in over 50 years off the coast, right?” he said. (Wilson countered that there are still active derricks down south.) Bohn went on to address offshore wind development, questioning whether fastening cables to the ocean floor would be contrary to any stance against seabed mining. Wilson said they’re “pretty different technologies,” noting that mining is extractive, but Bohn remained skeptical.

Michelle Bushnell, the board chair and Second District Supervisor, then said she wasn’t comfortable approving the resolution until she did more investigating. She asked Wilson where he got all of the information included in the document. He replied that some was taken from previously passed Humboldt County resolutions, plus some elements of one from Santa Cruz County.

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo suggested adding language to the resolution about supporting Marine Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas. Wilson liked that idea.

During the public comment period, two people spoke in support of the resolution, citing the potential harm to local fisheries by offshore oil drilling and deep sea mining.

Bohn remained unconvinced, saying, “I just don’t know if the threat’s there to be doing this” and again positing that offshore wind development could do “comparable damage.” He also expressed reticence about joining the proposed coalition.

Bushnell agreed. “Appointing you to something that’s not even formed yet is weird to me,” she said, adding, “I just don’t feel great about the whole thing.”

In response, Wilson said, “In order to form an organization, you have to have some people coming together to do it.”

The board wound up approving the resolution by a vote of 3-1-1, with Bohn dissenting and Bushnell abstaining.

Coastal Sign Ordinance

In another vote that revealed board members’ ideological differences, the supervisors narrowly approved three small amendments to the county’s Coastal Sign Ordinance.

The vote broke along the same divide it had a year and a half ago when this ordinance was originally adopted. In the meantime it got sent to the California Coastal Commission for certification. The commission made a few tweaks to the language, tweaks that Humboldt County Planning and Building Director John Ford described as “very minor.”

The ordinance itself sets new standards (size, height, design, location, etc.) for signs and billboards in the county’s unincorporated areas, with an eye toward protecting natural resources. The changes made by Coastal Commission staff were fairly inconsequential rewordings to make the ordinance consistent with the California Coastal Act.

Bohn, who has previously argued that the ordinance constitutes an attack on local businesses by restricting their ability to advertise, renewed his case today, saying, “We keep striking out at small businesses and local businesses everywhere we can, and it just gets to be pretty trying on the business community.”

He added, “I mean, I’m going to vote for it, because there’s no sense of not voting for it,” though he wound up taking the latter option anyway.

Wilson characterized the new version of the ordinance as “a good cleanup” of the previous one and inquired about tweaking the inland version of the county rulebook to match, though he abandoned that suggestion upon learning that this would require returning the matter to the Planning Commission.

After some discussion, Arroyo said she appreciated the feedback from the Coastal Commission and was ready to incorporate the changes. 

Not Bushnell, though.

“I wasn’t supportive of this ordinance in the past; I probably am not going to be today,” she said. “It’s not reflection on staff. It’s a reflection on my district and the difficulties that are we’re already having with the sign ordinance.” This was said in the context of Southern Humboldt’s economic difficulties.

The board voted to adopt the revised ordinance by a vote of 3-2, with Bohn and Bushnell dissenting.

What else?

• Dan Phillips and John Ballard, a pair of former Silicon Valley tech execs, delivered a presentation on a fairly new economic development initiative called StartUp Humboldt. The endeavor, billed as a community entrepreneurship center and support system for small businesses, represents a collaboration between Cal Poly Humboldt, College of the Redwoods, Lost Coast Ventures, Norcal SBDC, North Coast SBDC, the Institute for Entrepreneurship Education and Cal Poly Humboldt’s Sponsored Programs Foundation. Through their nonprofit Lost Coast Ventures, Phillips and Ballard aim to create 250 “good-paying jobs” in Humboldt County over the next decade, according to Ballard.
• The board unanimously appointed Bohn to serve on the county’s Redevelopment Oversight Board, a role he’s held before. The seven-member body, which assists the state’s dissolution of local redevelopment agencies, only meets about once per year, or as needed.
• The board sang the praises of community granges ahead of the 150th annual California State Grange Convention, which will see some 200 grangers from rural communities across California descending upon the Van Duzen River Grange in Carlotta, as my colleague Isabella Vanderheiden recently previewed.
• October got itself officially declared both Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month, with the board emphasizing the importance of early detection and support services.