EDC
Source: Environmental Defense Center
Santa Barbara County has released the final environmental impact report on ExxonMobil’s proposal to transport oil by tanker trucks so it can restart three drilling platforms off California, setting up a vote on the project.
The plan calls for up to 70 oil-filled trucks per day on coastal Highway 101 and Route 166, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission is scheduled to hold hearings on the project on Sept. 2 and Sept. 9 before voting on it.
“ExxonMobil would put California communities and motorists in harm’s way, just to restart its dirty and dangerous offshore platforms,” said Kristen Monsell, ocean legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Sending oil tanker trucks along California’s coastal highway all day and night risks deadly accidents. Santa Barbara County should reject this reckless plan and urge ExxonMobil to decommission its platforms. We should end offshore drilling along this beautiful, bountiful coastline, not revive it.”
The FEIR concludes that there would be significant, unavoidable impacts from the project, including significant impacts on wildlife and cultural resources in the event of an oil spill from a tanker truck. The FEIR does not analyze the numerous harmful impacts of bringing Exxon’s offshore platforms back online.
“The county’s Final Environmental Impact Report fails to disclose the devastating impacts that will result if ExxonMobil is allowed to resume oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel and truck oil along our scenic highways,” said Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center, which represents Get Oil Out! and SBCAN. “ExxonMobil’s proposal will result in more oil spills, air pollution, and increased climate change at a time when we need to pursue clean energy alternatives.”
A majority of Santa Barbara County voters say they oppose proposals to restart ExxonMobil’s offshore drilling platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, according to a recent poll. Nearly 3 out of 4 respondents said they were concerned “about the safety of our local highways if up to 70 oil tanker trucks are allowed on our roads each day.”
“Trucks are the least safe way to transport oil — in human death, property destruction, and amount of oil spilled,” said Katie Davis, chair of the Sierra Club’s Los Padres Chapter. “Not only that, but this environmental report is severely lacking by leaving out the oil spills and other risks of restarting the aging oil rigs and Gaviota Coast oil facilities, which were one of the largest sources of air pollution in the county. No wonder this proposal has faced immense backlash and opposition from Chumash elders to students to businesses to city councils.”
ExxonMobil’s three offshore platforms near Santa Barbara were shut down in 2015 after the Plains All American Pipeline ruptured and spilled hundreds of gallons of oil along the California coast. The company proposes to restart its platforms and load its offshore oil onto tanker trucks at its Las Flores Canyon processing facility. The trucks would transport up to 470,400 gallons of oil per day up to 140 miles to refineries in Kern County and Santa Maria.
“We need Santa Barbara County supervisors to stand with and for frontline communities and reject Exxon’s dangerous trucking scheme,” said Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino, senior organizer with Food & Water Action. “Should any accident occur, farmworkers and families could be severely harmed from exposure to toxic oil. Community health should be prioritized above all things. We hope COVID-19 has at least taught us all this lesson.”
California suffers hundreds of oil-truck incidents a year, and many result in oil spills. There were 216 trucking accidents along the route from 2015 to 2020, California Highway Patrol data show, resulting in nine deaths and 92 injuries. A tanker truck crashed off Highway 166 on March 21, spilling more than 4,500 gallons of oil into the Cuyama River above Twitchell Reservoir.
Tanker trucks spill hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil per year, according to an American Petroleum Institute report. These oil spills can cause fires and explosions. An Associated Press study of six states where truck traffic has increased because of increased oil and gas drilling found that fatalities in traffic accidents have more than quadrupled since 2004 in some counties.
“Not only do the Chumash people originate from our local lands and waters, but Chumash culture itself is created from the relationship we have maintained with all beings in these ecosystems since time immemorial,” said Alicia Cordero, First Nations program officer with the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation. “It is our sacred duty to protect and care for this natural abundance that all beings depend upon. As residents in the Chumash homelands today, we call on all of the peoples of Santa Barbara County to share this responsibility with us to safeguard the area’s natural cultural resources. We must reject Exxon’s dangerous proposal which presents an unacceptable risk to these lands, waterways, and the ocean itself.”
Offshore oil development also poses unacceptable risks of spills and air and water pollution. Oil spills near the Santa Barbara coastline threaten a wide range of federally protected endangered species, including blue whales, sea otters and California tiger salamanders.
ExxonMobil to restart its offshore platforms and onshore processing facility will also generate enormous levels ofgreenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climate change, undermining goals set by the county’s Energy and Climate Action Plan adopted in May 2015.
The coalition opposing ExxonMobil’s trucking plan includes Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, 350 Santa Barbara, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Center, Food and Water Action, GOO!, SBCAN, Sierra Club’s Los Padres Chapter, UCSB Academic Senator Esmeralda Quintero-Cubillan and Surfrider Foundation Santa Barbara County Chapter.
This is just a strategy by big oil to get the public to give in on their obligation to remove the platforms. A bargaining chip.
NOOOOO…………………………….
Yes.
Unbelievable.
We can look forward to oil spills in the ocean as well as on our highways if approved. Most of us will never forget nor forgive the oil industry’s mishaps, including the 1969 platform blowout (the third largest, after Horizon and Valdez) which coated our beaches, to the more recent Refugio pipeline spill. We narrowly missed disaster when the Supervisors denied single walled tankering in our channel. A few months later irresponsible practices (including a drunken captain) resulted in the Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The local pollution, spill and environmental track record of the petroleum industry should guide decision makers in the consideration of approvals.
Most of us remember very few oil spills have happened since that big blow out in the 1960’s. A few swimming pool sized leak at Refugio, immediately cleaned up to the tune of a billion dollars, and Greka property having a string of minor and locally contained mishaps. Probably more oil and FOG (fats, oil and grease) go down our drains of local residents by now than any “oil spill” since the 1970.s. This is a highly regulated industry, thanks to GOO, and they have earned a good conduct medal since that time So it is time to forget that incident; not use it to continually beat up any renewed possibility of a thriving and responsible oil extraction industry here today.
When the choice is either,
Soothing words or cash..
Cash wins every time.
On a positive note though..
I am convinced SB is nearly broke, by the desperate fashion in which we are selling the farm.
combine 70 or so oil trucks a day with the vagrant fires along the highway – how do people THINK this will work out ??? furthermore, once they have the go-ahead, there’s no going back.
Gasoline should be banned too
I can only suggest our leaders use their wisdom in this decision. I Remember the days when Exxon tried countless times to produce their oil and was denied time after time. Having all their platforms in federal waters there last option was to bring in a floating refinery. Once the “Santa Ynez” refinery was brought in both Santa Barbara and the state of California lost all over sight and revenue sharing. It was all federal. Much different standards especially today. Heck they may even be able to connect to other platforms.
Just one thing to consider
This is far too dangerous to even consider. I hope wisdom prevails.
The article says “hundreds of gallons” of oil were spilled from the pipeline in 2015. It was actually 142,800 gallons.
Average home swimming pool – 20,000 gallons = 7 swimming pool sized oil pipeline leak – 140,000 gallons in recent Refugio spill . Cleaned up immediately, down to tooth brushes used to clean individual rocks. Media alarmists claimed the entire central coast down to Santa Barbara area was drowning under a sea of oil, which killed local tourism.
Has anyone noticed the kids making bowling balls out of tar on the beach?
Or the giant oil slick about a mile off the coast?
These are not from human operations.
How much oil naturally seeps from the ocean floor?
We need oil, we need jobs, we need revenue coming into the County for the schools.
We do not need to be dependent on foreign oil.
Checkmate, they can’t keep them from drilling in federal waters.
We don’t need oil, and are not dependent on foreign oil. Oil operations provided little in the way of revenue to the county, and their jobs were temporary, low skill, and low-paying. Green renewables provide better jobs and increased revenue, plus they won’t destroy our environment.
https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/coal-and-other-fossil-fuels/hidden-cost-of-fossils#.Wk8Q3COZPOQ
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-scientists-hydrogen-gas-oil-bitumen.html
Wait til you see the route map! Yeah, 166 is SUCH a good route for 70 oil trucks a day.
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/oil_trucking_environmental_report_released_ahead_of_september_hearings
Do not presume to speak for the 85% who think you’re full of it. I don’t need oil, I have a job, we are not dependent on foreign oil. If you want to sell your soul to the oil industry that’s your right.
What else ya got?
How many miles if coast were affected? Don’t apologize for the oil industries screwup. Own and make sure it never happens again….duh dum duh dumpty dum… Hey let’s put oil in tanker trucks and drive on a road with a poor safety record.
Don’t be an oil industry apologist. Like having a mullet, there are few places you will feel comfortable.
Our channel has the second largest Natural oil seep in the world, Caspian Sea is first.
This is Naturally – I emphasize naturally – occurring and wildlife has figured it out for the most part over the history if the world.
Oppose starting up the oil production – go for clean energy Exxon! I know you have the means to do it.
eXXon, the sign of the double-cross.
We need to tax oil like other states. Talk to me when the oil industry stops opposing a reasonable extraction tax that even states like Texas impose.
Tell the industry to stop injecting their wastewater into the oil reservoirs to pressurize them. Then the seeps will slow down.