By Katie Davis
DECLINE TO SIGN
If someone with a petition tries to corner you outside a shopping center in Ventura County, run the other way and not just because of the increasing risk of COVID.
The petition is an attempt by oil companies to make an end run around environmental review of their oil projects. The petition seems to be the brainchild of Aera Energy, the Exxon and Shell-owned, limited-liability oil company that has been successfully sued for polluting groundwater in Kern County and for chemical releases in Ventura County that caused hundreds of people to suffer health impacts such as burning eyes and irritated noses and throats.
They are unhappy that the County recently closed a loophole that allowed unrestricted and unlimited new drilling without environmental review or compliance with existing law. So, they are gathering signatures to trigger a special election to overturn this county law that requires environmental review and disclosure of health impacts of oil projects.
A special election would cost Ventura taxpayers around a million dollars that we can ill-afford during an economic crisis.
BEWARE. Don’t sign the petition. Spread the word. donotsignVC.com
RAINING LAWSUITS
In addition to the petition shenanigans, oil companies have been raining down lawsuits on Ventura County’s General Plan update which among other things, sets a 1500-foot buffer zone between oil drilling and houses and 2500 feet from schools.
Living next to oil drilling is dangerous and unhealthy, and buffer zones are needed to protect public health. It’s the job of local government to set these kinds of rules, and their right and responsibility to engage in local land use planning. Indeed, they could outlaw oil entirely if they wanted to.
For instance, it’s been illegal to drill in the City of Santa Barbara since the 1940s. However, the oil companies are now arguing that local governments don’t have this basic right and only the state can regulate oil. This is a radical argument that seeks to overturn a 100+ years of jurisprudence and precedent. Let’s hope sanity and the basic right to local self-governance prevails.
ONE CLIMATE
This year of record-breaking heat and historic wildfires that have burned 5.8 million acres on the west coast underscores the urgency of action on the climate crisis. Report after report warns we can expect more extreme weather events, crop losses, droughts and fires due to an unnaturally rapid rate of global warming.
“One Climate” is the name given to the various climate initiatives underway in Santa Barbara County, including: updating the General Plan to incorporate climate impacts; updating the Climate Action Plan with the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030; improving opportunities for biking and walking in the county; and launching community choice energy.
The last of those, Central Coast Community Energy (formerly Monterey Bay Community Power) will roll out in PG&E territory in January and in SCE territory in October 2021. Another important piece of this -- setting an emissions threshold so that large new developments start mitigating some of their emissions -- was passed by the Planning Commission Nov.12 and will go to the Board of Supervisors in January.
“Through One Climate, we want to hear from the community how we can protect what we love, and make our county as prosperous, equitable and resilient as possible,” said Gregg Hart, supervisors’ chair. Learn more and sign up for the County’s monthly sustainability e-newsletter at:
www.countyofsb.org/oneclimate
OFFSHORE NO MORE
With Joe Biden’s win, the threat of Trump’s plan to offer new oil leases in the Santa Barbara Channel has been forestalled. Meanwhile, cleanup of our oily ocean legacy proceeds.
An old leaking well on Summerland beach was capped in November and another is planned this Spring. Remnant oil and gas pipelines protruding from the coastal bluffs at Haskell’s beach in Goleta were removed in November as well. In fact, the state has stepped in to do hazards removal work in Ellwood seven times in the past ten years.
In addition, trucks are hauling away 3000 barrels of oil from Goleta through mid-December to manage pressure from wells on Platform Holly off Isla Vista until it can be completely plugged and abandoned, a process delayed by COVID.
That work is nothing compared to the deeper water platforms slated for removal, some of which weigh more than 30,000 tons and are in water over 700 feet deep. Heavy lift vessels and other equipment will have to be brought in from other parts of the world for those jobs. Not all are yet slated for decommissioning. The three tallest and deepest platforms in the Pacific Ocean belong to Exxon and are located off the Gaviota coast. Those have been shut down since the 2015 oil spill and have a history of corrosion and leaks. Nonetheless, Exxon would still like to restart them and truck the oil along the 101.
That will be a fight in 2021.
