Before about 110 oil workers and 40 environmentalists packed the Ventura County Supervisors’ hearing room to hear views on a contentious lawsuit, a rally was held outside. It was organized by the Sierra Club and CFROG which included a dramatic tug of war between factions. Photo by Jasmine Vazin.
By Julie Henszey, Chair of the Ventura Sierra Club
Ventura County residents gathered for an anti-oil rally prior to a Sept. 12 meeting where a contentious county lawsuit settlement with oil companies over the 2040 General Plan was the focus of a hearing.
Under the legal settlement set in motion by the board on a 4-1 vote, flaring will be allowed when oil companies demonstrate conducting operations without flaring is “infeasible.” Trucking oil and produced water will also be allowed if transport by pipeline is deemed “infeasible.” Supervisor Vianey Lopez (Dist. 5) cast the lone dissenting vote.
The rally was held in the courtyard of the Ventura County Government Center. Organized by CFROG and the Ventura arm of the Santa Barbara-Ventura Sierra Club chapter, the permitted, twenty-minute event drew individuals upset with the decision by the County to settle the lawsuit.
It culminated with a mock tug-of-war over a ten-foot wooden oil derrick between “concerned residents” and “oil interests.” The latter group were portrayed by individuals introduced as ‘Aera Energy’,’ Carbon California’, ‘Cal-NRG’, and the ‘County of Ventura’. A person portraying Western States Petroleum Association cheered for the oil interests while brandishing cash in his raised hand.
The derrick toppled on the third attempt, sparking applause from the audience.
Rally participants engage in a theatrical tug of war to pull down an oil derrick prop with four individuals wearing masks to represent Aera Energy, Carbon California, CalNRG, and the County of Ventura. Photo by Jasmine Vazin.
As Chair of the Ventura Sierra Club, I kicked off the rally, stating that our Sierra Club Chapter was an intervener in the lawsuit.
Haley Ehlers, Director of CFROG (Climate First: Replacing Oil and Gas) provided a three-year timeline of the lawsuit, saying “2020 was a precedent-setting [year] in terms of protecting our public health [and] our climate,” with the policy language in the 2040 General Plan. “In the spring of this year, after the new Board of Supervisors were seated, they began … to discuss how to negotiate and weaken these policies” to prioritize “business as usual and oil profits” over community health.
The County adopted the General Plan in the Fall of 2020 in a 3-2 vote, with then-Supervisors Steve Bennett, Linda Parks and John Zaragoza approving adoption and Supervisors Kelly Long and Bob Huber against the adoption. Later in the year, eleven lawsuits were filed, and the board responded by allocating $1 million to fight them.
However, with the election of Jeff Gorell to replace Parks in 2023, a majority of the board became “oil friendly” and now sides with oil companies in decisions before the board. Their decisions exacerbate the causes of climate chaos and perpetuate environmental injustice in frontline communities throughout the county.
The fact that oil companies poured large dollar amounts into the campaigns for Supervisors Long and Gorell was a key concern for rally participants. Tomás Morales Rebecchi, of Food and Water Watch, targeted Gorell specifically, stating that Gorell accepted donations from oil interests during his campaign and that donors “knew what they were getting when they paid for you.”
Locking his gaze on Gorell, Rebecchi prognosticated, “Spare us your words, this community and future generations will remember you as this: a cheap pawn of the oil industry.”