SB Supervisors Host Oil Drilling Hearing

8/25/08

SANTA MARIA - Some are calling it an historic meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.

At issue is whether to reverse the county's decades-old opposition to new offshore oil drilling.

A majority of the board now says new facts have emerged that require a review of the long-standing policy of supporting the federal ban on new offshore drilling.

Santa barbara is widely considered the birthplace of the modern anti-oil movement after the disastrous 1969 spill in the Santa Barbara channel that saw millions of gallons of crude kill marine life and spoil south county beaches.

The county has since been unwavering in its opposition to new offshore oil production and has blocked lifting the moratorium at every turn... until now.

The five member Board of Supervisors recently voted 3-2 to draft a letter to the governor citing new facts and considerations for changing the policy on offshore drilling.

The board plans to hear public comment from both sides of the drilling debate at a hearing tomorrow morning in Santa Maria.

“I think this is a historical hearing”, says Dave Cross of the Northern Santa Barbara County Energy Coalition, “because this is an opportunity for people to come back out and bring the county to own it again to make it an economically viable county, to have a say in the direction of energy.”

Opponents of lifting the ban plan to show up in force as well.

”Its just not worth it,” says Deborah Brasket of the Santa Barbara County Action Network, “because it is diverting us from where we really should be putting our thinking and our resources and our funds into these renewable energy sources and to mass transportation and to be creating the electric cars of the future.”

The two-page letter from the Board of Supervisors to the Governor cites among other things improvements in drilling technology and oil extraction methods since the 1969 spill, noting there have been no significant spills in offshore production since then.

The letter also points to studies that show renewed offshore drilling could reduce natural oil seepage in the Santa Barbara Channel,  the impacts drilling will have on reducing world oil prices and the country's dependence on foreign oil, and how renewed drilling will help the county generate badly needed revenue and job creation.

The board will vote on sending the letter to the Governor after the public comment period.

The hearing on offshore drilling gets underway at 9:00am Tuesday morning in the County Supervisors Chambers at the Betteravia Government Center in Santa Maria.