When it comes to energy production, it is important to produce locally and think globally. In this spirit, the Obama Administration’s plan to ban offshore energy development in California’s federal waters through 2022 is a mistake for three important reasons. First, it would result in less home-grown energy when we need more of it. Second, it would reverse progress toward making the United States energy independent, thereby increasing our national security. Third, it would stall progress in mitigating the impacts of global climate change.

It is a simple fact that, in the near term, we need more oil and gas, not less. The Energy Information Administration recently predicted that U.S. demand will continue to grow, and the International Energy Agency also forecasted that global oil consumption grow, for the next 24 years. California is the world’s sixth largest economy – larger than France or Brazil — and the most populous state and we require an enormous amount of energy from all sources to power our universities, our industries, our schools, our homes and our planes and cars (yes, even the electric ones).

The good news is that we are a major energy producer. California is the third largest oil producing state, with the industry responsible for nearly half a million jobs and contributing to vital public services with $20 billion in annual state and local tax revenues.

The bad news is that we produce only 37 percent of the energy we consume. The oil and gas we don’t produce here is imported by tanker or train, from countries — like Iraq, Angola and Russia – with laxer environmental protections. Critically, these countries are often not always aligned with the interests of the United States. So importing oil increases both our global carbon footprint and makes us less geopolitically secure.

The benefits of increased offshore production could be significant. Developing even some of our resources would make a huge dent in our imports and the math suggests that if we developed all of our offshore oil and gas, we would produce enough to provide for ourselves without imports for 30 years. In addition, a study by ICF International estimates that, by 2030, such development could create more than 14,000 new jobs, $3 billion in economic activity and $12 billio...