CountyofSantaBarbara
Additional safety measures will be put in place, the Office of State Fire Marshal has authority over the restart of the Pipeline
The County of Santa Barbara reached a conditional settlement agreement with Pacific Pipeline Company (PPC), and its parent company Sable Offshore Corp. (Sable) on August 30, 2024, in the litigation regarding the Las Flores Pipeline’s safety valves. The conditional settlement agreement addresses PPC’s revised plan regarding the proposed safety valves as well as additional surveillance and response enhancements that will be added to the Pipeline.
The conditional settlement agreement was entered into after PPC revised its plan to underground all 16 safety valves and ancillary equipment on the Las Flores Pipeline System in the County of Santa Barbara. The County is preempted from exercising local control over the changes by its 1988 settlement agreement with the Celeron Pipeline Company (a Pipeline predecessor to PPC and Sable) and federal law because the safety valves and all ancillary equipment will be one foot or more below the surface of the ground, are required by state law, and related to the design, construction, or operation of an interstate pipeline.
As required by State law AB 864 and the Office of State Fire Marshal, the proposed safety valves must be in place before the Pipeline is operated. The Office of the State Fire Marshal has authority over the restart of the Pipeline, will oversee installation and testing of the safety valves, as well as implementing a number of integrity-related improvements before any operation of the Pipeline takes place.
In addition, PPC agreed to the following additional surveillance and response enhancements in the County:
- PPC will create a Santa Barbara County-based Surveillance and Response Team, trained in PPC’s Tactical Response Plan, which will be responsible for timely initial incident response and equipped with key resources to deploy in early containment, particularly for those regions of the Pipeline between Gaviota and Las Flores Canyon;
- PPC will provide Santa Barbara first responders with additional training and equipment to assist in PPC’s incident response efforts; and
- PPC will undertake the following Pipeline system enhancements: (1) install and operate and maintain primary and secondary Operations Control Centers in Santa Barbara County, and (2) refurbish the Gaviota pump in its existing station.
“We never want to relive the devastation of the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill and its impact on our coastline. Although the County does not have jurisdiction over these changes to the pipeline, I’m glad this settlement includes key safety, monitoring, and response protocols,” said Chair of the Board of Supervisors Steve Lavagnino. “If we continued to fight this out in court, Pacific Pipeline Company likely would have sought to recover lost revenue from the pipeline not being in operation. That could amount to millions of dollars the County would be on the hook for.”
PPC, Sable and the County have agreed to file a stipulation to dismiss the pending lawsuit with prejudice, Pacific Pipeline Company and Sable Offshore Corp. v. Santa Barbara County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors (Case No. 2:23-cv-09218-DMG-MRW) within 15 days of final installation of all 16 underground safety valves in the county.
Plains has been ok’d to “refurbish” the pipeline that burst causing the Refugio oil spill with the addition of an incident-response “team” which they will control. Safety precautions must be monitored by someone else, not by the company. (Like foxes and hen houses)
Remember the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that exploded and killed so many people that it became a movie? They had an emergency “plan.” When they turned to it, they found it was a 20-year-old plan written for an entirely different platform that they changed the names on and re-issued – not even close to being useful. Safety instructions for the FAA and any safety equipment or processes used to be approved by the FAA. Sometime in the last 30 years, the FAA gave the airlines the authority to monitor themselves, and we saw a 737 that had an electronic system that the airlines hid because it was too expensive to teach the pilots how to use it, and we have doors with missing bolts. Letting the Pipeline company monitor its own safety team is dangerous.
“PPC will create a Santa Barbara County-based Surveillance and Response Team, trained in PPC’s Tactical Response Plan, which will be responsible for timely initial incident response and equipped with key resources to deploy in early containment, particularly for those regions of the Pipeline between Gaviota and Las Flores Canyon.”
Oilies. Ugh!
Companies that benefit from the oil from the Las Flores Pipeline Include Plains All American Pipeline, Kinder Morgan, Chevron, Phillips 66, PG&E, SoCal….was their any influence? Are their any conflict of interests?
We all benefit from the use of oil. We pay these companies to bring it to market, just as we pay farmers and fishermen to bring their products to market. Companies only benefit by producing goods that consumer want, and more importantly, need.
If any business or person (or government) does damage to another’s property then should pay the cost to repair and restore the property.
These oil businesses do massive damage, continuously, and yet we reward them with massive subsidies while they reap enormous profits. Insanity!
“A subsidy is government MONEY GIVEN TO assist businesses. What you’re calling a subsidy for oil companies is just the government allowing them to deduct business expenses. Not taxing operating costs isn’t a subsidy. Oil companies and those producing petroleum-based products generate billions in tax revenue.”
Enormous profits? 8.3%
“Energy firms listed in the S&P 500 stock index posted an 8.3% profit margin in 2021. That was below the median for all 11 sectors, which was 10.6%. Financials led with a 25.3% profit margin. Tech was second at 23.2%. PHARMACEUTICAL firms posted a 23.1% margin.”
Keep thrashing. People who actually know about the fossil fuel industry know that you are parroting propaganda.
What exactly is untrue? Who are these people who “actually” know about the fossil fuel industry, and where is their data? Why haven’t you provided evidence to support a rebuttal? You can easily look up the definition of subsidy, as well as the median profit margins for energy firms (most of which are fossil fuel companies).
Massive damage? America’s oil and gas industries are among the cleanest in the world.
Talk about “oil company subsidies” without explaining which subsidy is objectionable makes it harder to discuss.
No offense meant, but there are many different types of subsidies. Some are outright payments. Like when we pay farmers not to grow soybeans this year, or we pay the farmer a higher price than market for wheat, so we are assured a wheat crop. others are tax credits and depreciation rules.
There are also tax rules/formula on depreciation of assets that are called subsidies- or tax breaks. The favorite one would be the depreciation allowance which lets anyone with an interest in oil, gas, iron, copper, gold, ore, silver, and specific oil shale deposits to reduce gross income from those items by 15%
The last subsidy I’ll bring up is a relief from price controls upon pipeline transmissions. Government regulates what pipeline transmission companies can charge per unit, but allows the pipeline operator to apply to be able to charge more.
There are others like cheap leases of public lands (idea being not all leases will be profitable but those that are will make up for the cheap lease with large tax payment) but since oil, gas has so many thousands of regulations, the modification of any regulation in favor of the company is called a subsidy.
Just a FWIW here for conversation, the most subsidized industry in USA is EV, their batteries, their chargers.
More disinformation. Here’s what’s real:
The International Renewable Energy Agency tracks energy sector subsidies, and of $634 billion in subsidies in 2020, and found that around 70% were fossil fuel subsidies. About 20% went to renewable power generation, 6% to biofuels and just over 3% to nuclear.
https://www.irena.org
Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion or 7.1 percent of GDP in 2022, reflecting a $2 trillion increase since 2020 due to government support from surging energy prices.
https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/climate-change/energy-subsidies/
Just more hornswoggle. You give faulty evidence, and have a history of ignoring facts. Others know better.
What does the Union of Concerned Scientists have to say?
https://blog.ucsusa.org/shaina-sadai/fossil-fuel-companies-make-billions-in-profit-as-we-suffer-billions-in-losses-2024-edition/