Schiff Says Trump's Iran War Threatens California Beaches Play

U.S. Senator Adam Schiff was in Ventura late last week, and then went to Santa Barbara to look at the offshore oil platforms that have been given a new lease on life by the president. Literally.

Some of the offshore oil wells have spewed oil into the Pacific Ocean as late as 2015, when they were shut off and were in the process of being removed.

But then came Donald Trump — "Drill Baby Drill." And a war against Iran that has caused a worldwide oil panic.

Senator Adam Schiff says the United States is now boxed in.

"It's very difficult to figure out what's the path forward when you began a war — as this administration did — without a clear plan for what their objectives would be, what their endgame would be," Schiff said. "It's very tough to tell. How does this end? When does this end? How do we bring about an end?"

"We do not want a situation where Iran controls the Straits of Hormuz. That would be intolerable. We don't want a situation where Iran can impose tolls. That was pretty unthinkable before this war, but now Iran probably has a sense that maybe they can get away with that. We also don't want to have this new, perhaps even-worse regime crack down on the Iranian people."

Schiff says the president's attack on Iran is simply against U.S. law.

"What is so galling about all this is we were not attacked by Iran. There was not an imminent threat of attack. The president had bombed Iran only around nine months earlier, and had said their nuclear force had been obliterated. I suspect that part of it was the president having used military force in Venezuela and having been able to quickly capture Maduro, felt was intoxicated by that use of military power, and thought that Iran would be like Venezuela, but Iran is not Venezuela."

And that takes us back to the coast — the beaches just up the coast from Malibu. The worldwide crisis prompted by the Trump war against Iran is hitting home amongst us here on the California coast.

We're not just talking about the six dollar gallon gasoline at the pumps in Malibu. Offshore oil drilling just up the coast, responsible for smog in the air and oil in the water, is roaring back. Senator Adam Schiff says California is being hurt in multiple ways by the president's pro-oil campaign.

"In Morro Bay the administration is intervening in order to kill a wind power project," Schiff said. "They are paying that company taxpayer dollars to stop producing wind energy, to stop that project, so long as they promise to put their money into an oil project instead.

"And here they are now overriding the state, overriding the concerns of residents and the regional economy and the tourist industry, that we could have another oil spill like we did with that pipeline before, that catastrophic oil spill. They override those concerns to, again, give favors to the oil industry.

"And then to add injury to injury, we read today that the oil companies had reporting record profits. So I think that's crazy."

Schiff said the U.S. attack against Iran was against the law — literally, against U.S. law.

That's U.S. Senator Adam Schiff speaking in Ventura County, in an interview with reporter Lance Orozco at KCLU radio. KCLU is a news partner of KBUU. They are the NPR station at 88.3 in Ventura County. You can hear the entire interview at kclu.org.