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

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