Offshore Oil Drilling Banned Along New Stretch of California Coast

"In the largest expansion of national marine sanctuaries in California in 23 years, the Obama administration on Tuesday more than doubled the size of two Northern California marine sanctuaries, extending them by 50 miles up the rugged Sonoma and Mendocino coasts.

Under the dramatic move by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the boundaries of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries expand from Bodega Bay to Point Arena, permanently banning offshore oil drilling along that stretch of coast.

'These waters represent an extraordinary marine ecosystem, one of the richest on our planet,' said Maria Brown, NOAA's superintendent of the Farallones sanctuary, headquartered in San Francisco."

Paul Rogers reports for the San Jose Mercury News June 9, 2015.