Energy Roundup
By Katie Davis
Community Energy
Sierra Club and our allies have long advocated for community choice energy programs to accelerate procurement of renewable energy and invest dollars locally in greater resilience and faster progress toward climate goals.
This year we have finally achieved coverage across our entire Chapter region! In October Santa Barbara Clean Energy (www.sbcleanenergy.com) launched for residential customers in the City of Santa Barbara. And Central Coast Community Energy (www.3CEnergy.org) launched in Goleta, Carpinteria and unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County.
Also, more jurisdictions are opting for 100% renewable energy default plans in Ventura and LA Counties through CPA (www.CleanPowerAlliance.org) with remarkable results. For example, Thousand Oaks’ greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector dropped 80% between 2018 and 2020.
Battery projects continue to roll out in our region. These provide more reliable power with zero emissions and let us retire old polluting gas-powered peaker plants by reducing peak demand.
Battery Energy
On Oct. 25, the Goleta Planning Commission approved a 60-megawatt battery storage facility on Cortona Drive. It will utilize Tesla batteries to provide 87,600 megawatt-hours annually, which is equivalent to supplying annual energy demands to 13,257 homes.
Wind Energy
Local wind energy is now a reality as well.
In November, the first wind turbine was completed in the Lompoc wind project, which will eventually provide enough energy for 45,000 homes. Offshore proposals are slowly advancing as comments are due Jan. 11 on the latest proposed area for offshore wind, which is located approximately 20 miles offshore the central California coastline and contains approximately 240,898 acres (376 square miles). Comment at the Wind Energy Virtual Meeting Room here.
Comment Time
California is finally issuing health and safety rules around oil production statewide, but there is a big loophole we’re trying to remove – the exception for existing infrastructure.
If you’d like to do one good thing today, send an email by Dec. 21 to: calgemregulations@conservation.ca.gov
Tell them to support new state regulations to protect public health from oil drilling by requiring a 3200-foot oil well setback from homes and schools, which is recommended by its own Science Advisory Panel to apply the rule to existing operations, not just brand-new development.
Decision Time
In a major victory, the SB Planning Commission has recommended denial of ExxonMobil’s plan to restart its offshore oil platforms off the Gaviota coast and truck the oil on the 101.
The platforms have been shut down since the 2015 Refugio oil spill from a ruptured pipeline. Since the pipeline remains too badly corroded to use, ExxonMobil proposes to truck the oil via 24,800 tanker truck trips per year on Highway 101. The Commission rightly concluded that the risk of spills and accidents from such a plan outweigh any possible benefit.
In February or early March, the Board of Supervisors will make a final decision on this egregious project. If you live in the county, let your Supervisor know that you expect him/her to vote to deny the trucking project.
Decommission Time
Work to plug and abandon the 30 oil wells on Platform Holly off the coast of Goleta has resumed but it will take more than a year to complete. CA State Lands plans to have a town hall about it on Dec. 8. Further offshore in federal waters, similar work is being done on Platforms Gail and Grace off of Carpinteria and Hidalgo, Harvest and Hermosa off the Gaviota coast. Meanwhile, another old well on Summerland beach, one called Duquesne #910, is slated to be properly abandoned this month.
Protect Sespe
ForestWatch is challenging the county of Ventura’s extension of an oil drilling permit in the Sespe Oil Field adjacent to the Los Padres National Forest and Sespe Creek. It’s the first extension of an oil drilling permit in the Sespe Oil Field in 25 years, yet the County is trying to approve the permit by shortcutting the environmental study process. The appeal will be heard at the Ventura Planning Commission in early 2022. Find out more here.
Looking Forward
The Build Back Better Act was passed by Congress on Nov. 19 and could make it to a Senate vote in December. Among its many social and environmental benefits, it would permanently ban future offshore oil and gas leasing off the coast of California and invest $555 billion in clean energy and climate initiatives, the most significant effort to combat climate change in American history.