Santa Cruz Enviros Stumped by Santa Barbara Drilling Reversal
The county that led the charge to fight oil drilling in the '70s invites it today
Story by Molly Zapp
Whatever they’re putting in the water down there in Santa Barbara, it probably isn’t petroleum-soaked pelicans—yet.
Nearly 40 years after the massive Central Coast spill that catapulted the anti-oil movement into the national spotlight, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Aug. 26 to send a letter to the governor requesting that the ban on offshore drilling be lifted.
It could be an act of pure pandering, with no possibility of becoming real. Santa Barbara Congresswoman Lois Capps dismisses the board's action as “a political stunt,” which she doesn’t think will have “much effect.” And Gov. Schwarznegger has signaled no change in his stance on continuing the ban.
But Save Our Shores Executive Director Laura Kasa expresses concern that the symbolic impact of the board's letter will be fuel for Republican offshore drilling proponents in Washington.
“Any of these Republicans will say, 'Hey, the whole county who once so opposed offshore drilling now says it's OK—this is the way the whole country wants to go,'” Kasa says.
Government statistics from the Energy Information Agency estimate that it would take 10 years to obtain oil from new offshore drilling, and 20 years for prices to fall. Kasa cites the EIA's estimate that the financial offset in the price of petroleum 20 years down the line would only be a few cents per gallon, and says that SOS is working to educate the public on the actual impact opening up the ocean for drilling could have.
Even stranger waves are being made in the southern California ocean. Anti-oil groups Get Oil Out! and the Environmental Defense Center have made a deal to support oil company Plains Exploration & Production's bid to expand drilling off one of its platforms. In exchange, the oil company has agreed to shut down its operations in Santa Barbara County within the next 14 years.
Capps supports the arrangement between the environmental groups and the oil company.
“I believe this agreement is a good compromise,” she says in an email message. “It will result in the termination of drilling from four existing platforms and the closure of two on-shore processing sites in the county by 2022. Without this agreement, those platforms and production facilities could be there indefinitely.”
Cautious in her assessment of fellow conservation organizations breaking bread with Big Oil, Kasa says, “It would make me look more closely at an organization like that and why they operated that way.”
