The Goleta Union School District Board voted Wednesday, June 17, to reject ExxonMobil’s plan to truck offshore oil on Highway 101.
The school board voted unanimously to oppose Exxon’s plan to restart three aging offshore drilling platforms with up to 70 roundtrip tanker trucks of oil per day on Highway 101 and Route 166. The school district joins the City of Goleta, which last year voted unanimously against the project.
The three platforms have been shut down since the 2015 Plains Pipeline failure and oil spill at Refugio State Beach. The Refugio disaster sent between 140,000-450,000 gallons of oil onto the coastline and into Santa Barbara Channel resulting in at least 202 dead birds and 99 dead mammals, including at least 46 sea lions and 12 dolphins. Beaches and sea life were covered in crude costing hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up.
“As School Board members, we recognize the inherent risk involved with this activity,” said Goleta Union School District Trustee Luz Reyes-Martin. “I’m proud that the GUSD Board took a stand, I urge our Santa Barbara County leaders to do the same.”
“This proposal would put our children, families, staff, and broader community at risk of dangerous spills,” said Goleta Union School District Board Vice President Susan Epstein. Oil and gas revenues have never been a significant contributor to Goleta schools and would be less upon proposed restart.
“This is about the safety of our children, and protecting their air and water,” said Katie Davis, chair of the Sierra Club Santa Barbara Group who raised two children in Goleta schools. “These trucks are a disaster waiting to happen.”
Stephanie Prufer, oceans campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, pointed out that Exxon’s Las Flores Canyon Facility was the top emitter in Santa Barbara County in 2014, prior to the facility shutting down.
Las Flores “accounted for 281,515 Megatons of CO2 emissions, 59.4 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC), and 38.9 tons of PM2.5. Specifically, VOCs and PM2.5 are linked to a variety of respiratory and immune-system ailments, including lung cancer,” Prufer wrote to the Board.
Tanker trucks are the most dangerous means of transporting oil with a history of overturning, exploding, shutting down main evacuations zones and igniting wildfires. Tanker truck accidents have shut down the 101 in Goleta. One recently crashed on Route 166 and spilled more than 4,000 gallons of oil into the Cuyama River, threatening a reservoir. Oil trucks also pose a threat to school personnel who commute on the 101.
The Goleta School Board had previously passed Resolution No. 2019-03, an Environmental Stewardship call to action that recognized, the "broad scientific consensus among climate scientists that human activities, contributing to increases in greenhouse gas emissions, are the dominant cause of climate change," that "children represent a particularly vulnerable group," and that it is "important to do our part to address climate change."
“A few years ago, our board also voted to oppose a proposal to transport oil by rail,” Epstein said. “At a time when people are standing up for environmental justice and recognizing the need to move towards carbon neutrality, these proposals would be a big step in the wrong direction”
Additional links:
Oil and gas revenues have never been a significant contributor to Goleta schools and would be less upon proposed restart.: https://www.independent.com/2016/04/11/goleta-union-school-district-maintains-strong-fiscal-position/
Link to Exxon resolution passed 6/17/20: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=36030801&AID=32693&MID=2686
Cuyama oil tanker spill: https://www.independent.com/2020/03/24/tanker-spills-over-4000-gallons-of-crude-oil-into-cuyama-river/
Remembering an oil spill in the midst of a pandemic.142,000 Reasons to Say No to Exxon: https://www.independent.com/2020/05/19/remembering-an-oil-spill-in-the-midst-of-pandemic/