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Supervisors Reaffirm Opposition to New Offshore Drilling
With a 3-2 vote, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday reaffirmed its opposition to new offshore leasing for oil and gas operations.
The vote will send a letter from the county to the U.S. Department of Interior, urging the DOI not to issue any new leases off the California coast from 2010 to 2015. Supervisors Doreen Farr, Salud Carbajal and Janet Wolf voted in favor of the letter, while Supervisors Joseph Centeno and Joni Gray opposed it.
The board passed a resolution in April opposing new offshore leasing, with the same supervisors voting 3-2.
The timing of Tuesday’s decision is a result of two approaching deadlines, where the county is submitting comments by mid-September on the leasing program and recently proposed safety regulations by the Minerals Management Service. The supervisors approved the MMS comment letter unanimously.
According to staff reports, the Department of Interior is required to prepare a leasing program every five years. The program will determine the size, location and timing of oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf according to energy needs.
The DOI began preparing its document two years ahead of schedule just last year before former President George W. Bush left office, and released a draft document that included four offshore areas for new oil and gas leases, of which Santa Barbara was included.
Forty-six oil leases exist off the coast of Santa Barbara County, and seven of those will be terminated shortly because of legal settlements.
Gray, who opposed the letter, said she would write a letter of her own to the DOI, expressing that her district is in favor of new leasing.
She said she would like to see a regional approach, including opinions from Santa Maria and up north, and that new leasing would bring in higher-paying jobs and reduce imported oil. “To me, it’s a travesty that the entire offshore issue is analyzed form an urban, Santa Barbara city point of view,” she said.
Carbajal said the letter just reiterates the “long-standing concern” the South Coast has had with offshore oil leasing.
“We really should not be selling any leases off our coast,” he said. “We’ve come along way, in terms of technology, but most of the spills are human error and organizational failures.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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» on 09.02.09 @ 03:15 PM
Why am I not surprised. This has got to be the most intellectually vacant decision yet, in a long line of stupid decisions by the board. And yes it is the south coast cabal of liberal democrats leading the way.
You’re broke, your revenues are drying up and you have done everything possible to kill the engine of wealth creation (industry) over the years. And yet you have a chance to remedy the situation by extracting our own natural resources here and not only adding to the wealth of our country but here locally and what do you do? Oh you cater to idiots who have never gotten over an oil spill that occurred 40 years ago. Yet every single GOO and oil protester owes their very miserable and worthless existence to that black gooey substance. Without it the world would be very different and those who think that would be good wouldn’t exist. You want all kinds of gimmies, healthcare, welfare, medicare and on and on, but do you think for a moment you could actually do something to pay for all these wonderful services you liberals want? Why no! They want all kinds of feel good crap and they want to eliminate any means to earn it.
I believe our country is doomed. Every chance the voting public gets it votes to shoot itself in the foot. Then they elect cowering panderers to help them load the gun. If Santa Barbara is the nexus of progressive thought, yes I believe we are truly doomed. This is the stupidest town I have ever come across and this latest decision by the sups is just the final nail.
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» on 09.03.09 @ 09:38 AM
As supervisors Farr, Wolf and Carbajal drive their OIL FUELED automobiles to work, I wonder if the hypocrisy of their silly position ever embarrasses them. Probably not, sadly. But, while Chavez and Middle Eastern politics and atrocious pollution records continue unabated, polluting the poorer world and causing rampant damage, we sit here idly, smug that we are setting a green standard (we are role models, after all), sipping our chardonnays and enjoying our wonderful, almost anti-oil channel….Oh wait, hold that thought! I have to drive my CAR to the liquor store. Be right back! See you there Salud!
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» on 09.03.09 @ 01:31 PM
Just another case of outdated policy makers who still think this is 1969, and that people who are losing jobs really don’t care about something that will bring in jobs and revenue. Actually they really don’t care what you think at all.
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