The Long Beach chapter of Sunrise Movement, a youth-run environmental advocacy group, held a protest in downtown Long Beach to call for an end to offshore oil drilling on Monday, Oct. 11.
“We understand that our generation is going to be the one that inherits a world of climate catastrophe and climate disaster,” said Josiah Edwards of the Sunrise Movement Los Angeles chapter. “We are at the front lines of this crisis, simply by the nature of our age.”
The protest was held in response to an oil spill caused by a leaking pipeline that was discovered in federal waters off the coast of southern California on Saturday, Oct. 2.
The exact number of gallons of oil that leaked out is unknown. It was previously estimated that up to 144,000 gallons of oil had leaked out of the pipeline, but newer information suggests it may have been less.
At a press conference Oct. 7, United States Coast Guard Captain Rebecca Ore estimated that about 24,700 gallons of oil had spilled, which is currently being considered the minimum amount that may have leaked.
“The climate issue is becoming something we can’t ignore because forests are burning, oil spills are happening,” state congressional candidate Sylvester Ani Jr. said. “We’re seeing the climate disasters starting to become stronger and stronger and it’s getting to the point where we can’t deny it, people can’t deny it.”
According to a press release by State Senator Lena Gonzalez, who represents Long Beach, the water quality in Long Beach has not been impacted, and its beaches remain open to the public.
The oil spill did significantly contaminate Huntington Beach waters, forcing its beaches to close for over a week.
“This one instance of oil being spilled in our ocean is something small in comparison to what we know we will be living through over and over and over and over again,” Edwards said.
According to the group Lakota Law, as of February 2020, there have been 1,650 individual oil leaks in the United States since 2010, collectively spilling over 11.5 million gallons of oil.
According to City News Service, as of Oct. 10, 5,544 total gallons of crude oil from the spill had been collected by ships from the Huntington Beach spill.
Approximately 250,000 pounds of oily debris has been picked up from shorelines and 13.6 barrels of tar balls were collected on Oct. 9.
Amplify Energy, the company that owns the pipeline, claims it responded as soon as it became aware of the leak.
However, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s Office of Pipeline Safety, workers in Amplify Energy’s control room “received a low-pressure alarm on the San Pedro Bay Pipeline, indicating a possible failure at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday,” but the pipeline continued operating and wasn’t shut down until about 6 a.m. Saturday.
Adelia Sandoval of the Acjachemen Nation spoke at the protest about the importance of loving and respecting “Mother Earth.”
“We need to respect her, to care for her,” Sandoval said. “And everything that we’re trying to make happen, there’s always some corporate, money-making monger standing in our way.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Oct. 4 in response to the oil spill.
“The state is moving to cut red tape and mobilize all available resources to protect public health and the environment,” Newsom said in a statement. “As California continues to lead the nation in phasing out fossil fuels and combating the climate crisis, this incident serves as a reminder of the enormous cost fossil fuels have on our communities and the environment.”
According to a state press release, a command center has been set up in Long Beach where different departments can coordinate on how to most efficiently clean up the oil.
Sunrise Movement campaigns to replace fossil fuels with renewable energies, and also advocates for an increase in the amount of jobs available in clean energy industries.
“We need to transition to 100% renewable energy, we do not need this dirty dirty energy that we have that is polluting our environment, stealing away from our future and the future generations,” said Andrea Leon Guzman of the environmental group Azul.
City News Service contributed to this report.
