Pardon me if I issue some plain old facts into the argument.
The State of California has made a $hitload of money from offshore oil and gas. Indeed, much of the University of California and California State University systems were built up in the 1950's and 1960's on the plentiful petroleum revenue coming to the State. Some of California's offshore oil and gas leases have been in existence since the late 1920's and early 1930's. The Davis people commit "lies of omission" when the claim otherwise (the rationale is that the leases were "renewed" under a new name, so they aren't really that old - WRONG!!).
There are oil and gas leases in the California Tidelands and Submerged lands, ranging from Point Conception at the west end of the Santa Barbara Channel, to offshore Orange County - included granted lands in the Santa Monica Bay!
The first Federal leases were issued in 1963 off of NORTHERN and CENTRAL California. Some of the wells drilled on these leases discovered oil, but not in sufficient quality or quantity to justify development at 1960's prices. It was only after California lost a major US Suprme court case concerning jurisdiction in the Santa Barbara Channel, to the Federal Government in 1965, that they began to sour on offshore oil and gas. Then the (highly overrated) drilling accident off of Santa Barbara galvanized local environmental resistance. Then politics, rather than good policy, stuck its ugly nose in the game, and it hasn't been the same since.
The State of Florida did issue offshore oil and gas leases in the 1950's and 1960's. There were very few, and nothing of substance was ever developed from them. In California, almost 2 billions barrels have come from California waters, and almost 1 billion barrels from Federal waters there. The Federal waters still have significant proven reserves, and significant unexplored potential. For a State with a near 20 billion dollar budget shortfall, a crumbling infrastructure, declining schools, and a State that suffered from severe energy shortages last summer, Gov. Davis sure has a lousy energy policy. But, he hopes, it will buy him the "green vote" and that's all he really cares about anyway.
Your narrative explains a number of things formerly mysterious to me (I'm just a crummy ol' trader, my dollars only grease the mkts with liquidity).
Many thanks, and best wishes to you.
