As of August, 19 U.S. climate disasters have cost more than $1 billion each. These events killed 149 people.

It’s become painfully obvious since the world is not going to restrict fossil fuels, that we are not going to stop global climate change.

This, even as a village in southern Iran recorded heat of 180 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, and unlivable!

Over the Fourth of July weekend, the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat and wildfire watch for Santa Barbara County as temperatures along the coast rose into the high 90s, with residents of Cuyama and the Santa Ynez Valley experiencing temperatures of more than 100 degrees.

As of this writing, temperatures are again reaching unprecedented highs both along the coast and inland.

According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history, and in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else in the country — 15% above normal, leading to increased fire and heat-related health threats to residents.

It’s in this context that the City of Santa Barbara issued its Climate Action Plan — with the goal of carbon neutrality by 2035 — for review. 

The Climate Action Plan should have included the goal of shutting down all oil development.

Federal, state and local control of oil development is complicated and shared. Nevertheless, Santa Barbara County, through its Systems Safety & Reliability Review Committee, has regulatory oversight of onshore oil processing facilities, and the City of Santa Barbara has a statute prohibiting all oil development.

There is no reason the two could not be joined as a joint powers agreement (a contract between municipalities) shutting down both offshore and onshore oil production. This should have been spelled out in the city’s plan allowing citizens to comment on it.

Instead, the plan, after identifying that the majority of the city’s emissions come from single-occupancy vehicles (42%), focuses on reaching zero city transportation emissions by 40% through mitigation measures.

These include electrifying the city’s passenger and commercial vehicles, decarbonizing its off-road equipment, strengthening its electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and building bicycle and walking paths.

These are all good things, but they will not reduce the city’s greenhouse gas goals because Santa Barbara County is oil country.

The Santa Barbara Channel has been producing oil for more than 100 years.

ExxonMobil’s Santa Ynez Unit includes three offshore platforms located in federal waters pumped ashore through a pipeline to its onshore oil and natural gas processing facility west of Goleta.

And, 679 onshore wells are producing 207,700 barrels of oil in the county.

Oil energy has the highest carbon footprint of all energy types, with some 45% of all U.S. greenhouse gaas emissions coming from oil.

Let’s assume the city reaches its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, and the wells keep pumping and processing the oil in the county. What would be achieved?

The city would have reduced its carbon footprint, while unabated oil drilling and processing, across the county line and offshore, would be negating those savings.

The city and county are only separated by a line. The greenhouse gas emitted by oil production have an impact on the city, county, the tri-counties and the country.

Regardless of what the city achieves “Santa Barbara” would still be contributing to global warming from oil development.

A realistic Climate Action Plan would have pointed out that the county has the legal authority to shut down all oil development within the county: offshore by closing the Goleta processing facility and terrestrial by exercising its authority under the SSRC.

By combining this with the city’s statute prohibiting oil development Santa Barbara could eliminate its oil-related greenhouse gas emissions.

I realize that oil development, through jobs and taxes, brings some $324 million to Santa Barbara County and the region annually.

On the other hand, the economic costs from sea level rise, wildfires, drought, excessive heat and flooding would be in the billions of dollars, and like unabated oil drilling, would not be a one-time event.

Climate change, with its destruction and costs, is here to stay.