Environmental Defense Center: Coalition Asks State Lands Commission to Help End Offshore Drilling

EDC cites broad environmental support in backing of Tranquillon Ridge project.

By Betsy Weber | Published on 01.26.2009

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The Environmental Defense Center on Monday called on the State Lands Commission to join with a coalition of more than 25 local, state and national environmental organizations in supporting an agreement to effectively end all oil production off of northern Santa Barbara County in exchange for allowing slant drilling into state waters from one existing platform until 2022. The application in question is known as the Tranquillon Ridge project and has been submitted to the commission by Plains Exploration & Production Co. A hearing on the project is scheduled for Thursday in Santa Barbara.

“The commission has stood with the EDC on many important issues in the past,” EDC lead counsel Linda Krop said in a statement. “We recognize that this agreement represents a very different approach, both for the environmental community and the state. But we are afraid that denial of the application will jeopardize a number of critically important environmental benefits the environmental groups have successfully negotiated.”

Among the benefits Krop suggested would be lost to the state if the project is denied are:

» The four offshore platforms in question will continue to operate indefinitely.

» The presence of these platforms will be used to support new federal oil leasing, as proposed by the Minerals Management Service and the oil industry.

» The state will lose the opportunity to permanently protect nearly 4,000 acres of valuable coastal land.

» The community would lose the agreement to decommission the Lompoc Oil & Gas Plant, which is located near a residential area, and the Gaviota processing plant visible from Highway 101.

» Santa Barbara County will lose as much as $313 million in property tax revenue.

» The state will lose as much as $5 billion in royalty revenue — $100 million of which will be made available during this budget year.

“The most important concession we’ve achieved is that the company has agreed to shut down three Point Arguello platforms and the Gaviota onshore facilities in eight years, and Platform Irene and the Lompoc Oil & Gas Plant in 14 years,” Krop added. “That is a major policy victory for the environment — one we cannot hold on to if the commission rejects this application.

“Bottom line: Approval of this application marks the beginning of the end of oil offshore California. On the other hand, rejecting this application will likely extend the life of those platforms, and the risks of oil spills off our coast.”

Tranquillon Ridge supporting organizations include:

» Carpinteria Valley Association

» Citizens Planning Association of Santa Barbara County

» Community Environmental Council

» Conception Coast Project

» Environmental Defense Center

» Friends of the Ellwood Coast

» Gaviota Coast Conservancy

» Get Oil Out!

» Heal The Ocean

» La Purisima Audubon Society

» League of Conservation Voters of Santa Barbara

» League of Women Voters of California

» League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara

» League of Women Voters of Santa Maria Valley

» The Ocean Conservancy

» The Otter Project

» Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations

» Planning and Conservation League

» Santa Barbara Audubon Society

» Santa Barbara County Action Network (SB CAN)

» Santa Ynez Valley Alliance

» Sierra Club California

» Surfrider Foundation

» Surfrider Foundation, Santa Barbara Chapter

» Surfrider Foundation, Ventura Campaign

Betsy Weber represents the Environmental Defense Center.

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» tom becker on 01.27.09 @ 08:15 AM

The EDC/PXP agreement does not provide for an end date for Platform Irene, the Lompoc Oil and Gas Plant (LOGP) or any other onshore or offshore oil and gas facility.

In August of 2008 County Staff removed the condition requiring Irene and the LOGP to shut down on December 31, 2022. That condition, A-6, was determined by staff to be impossible to enforce because Irene is located in federal waters and is operated under a lease contract between the federal government and PXP. California State Lands Commission (CSLC) staff came to the same conclusion in their staff report, which can be viewed on the CSLC website.

The EDC is also misinforming the public about the true situation concerning all other PXP oil platforms and facilities. On the County Government energy website it clearly states that Irene, LOGP and the two oil platforms located at Point Arguello were scheduled to cease operations at the end of 2017. The EDC/PXP agreement extends the life of Irene and LOGP to December 31, 2022. Point Arguello was scheduled to close in 2017, so EDC did nothing to bring those platforms to an early close.

I support the PXP T-Ridge project and I wish EDC would stop spreading this disinformation about this project. The CSLC staff is recommending the commission reject this project and EDC’s actions are not going to be looked upon kindly by the Commission. PXP has been honest with the public on this project and has not engaged in disinformation. EDC is going to blow this one for PXP.


» Doubtful on 01.27.09 @ 08:36 AM

EDC has really gone out on a limb. This *deal* with an oil company will expand drilling not end it. It will greatly increase the potential of spills from the aging drilling platform Irene. There is no *coalition*, just the names of groups that EDC asked/begged to support it’s deal even though many of the elements of the deal were kept secret both from the public and from the State. This advertisement written by EDC and posing as *news* is so Orwellian that it should have never been allowed to be sent by Noozhawk. To be blunt this whole sordid event is an embarrassment to the Santa Barbara Environmental Community.


» Enviromentalist are nuts on 01.28.09 @ 08:01 PM

They hate America, and are killing business. They will drive America into a thrird word nation. Stop the liberals..


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