Oil politics animate California congressional race

Key Facts

Steel introduced legislation last week, for example, that would prohibit cargo ships from idling or anchoring 24 miles off the Orange County coast for up to 180 days or until a point when the President declares the backlog in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach over.
In the effort to ban new offshore drilling, California's congressional Democrats -- led by Rep. Mike Levin, a former environmental attorney who represents south Orange County and North County San Diego -- are pressing House leadership to retain a permanent ban on drilling in certain federal waters in the social safety net and climate package that Democrats are negotiating in Congress.
Rouda and the DCCC have tried to draw attention to royalty income that Steel and her husband have earned from oil companies -- which totaled between $5,313 and $15,200 in the personal financial disclosure report that she filed with the House Clerk as a candidate in May of 2020.
When asked why Rouda invested in an exchange-traded fund that is pegged directly to the price of crude, his campaign said that the former congressman "is betting on a transition away from fossil fuels and towards a clean energy economy as we deplete this non-renewable resource."