Santa Maria Sun / News

PXP revisited

BY AMY ASMAN

Dollars and drilling In January, online news sources started raising questions about stipulations made in a previously confidential agreement between Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) and three local environmental groups. According to the project contract, PXP agreed to pay the Environmental Defense Center two $50,000 installments in exchange for lobbying for its Tranquillon Ridge project. The parties defined the money as “reasonable compensation for work performed by the EDC on behalf of Get Oil Out (GOO!) and the Citizens Planning Association of Santa Barbara County,” the contract said. But some opponents of the project have speculated the money created a conflict of interest for the environmental groups. “PXP is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbyists and pollsters to push a confidential offshore oil drilling deal in Santa Barbara that could lead the way for increased drilling all along our beautiful coastline,” Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) said in a press release. However, EDC’s chief counsel Linda Krop said such interactions are actually the norm. “We can recover fees on behalf of our clients through court cases and settlements,” Krop said. “Groups like us are not able to survive and offer the services we do because we represent nonprofits.” She said hammering out the agreement took almost three years of work and cost counsel more than $100,000.

The product of an agreement between Texas-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) and three Santa Barbara environmental groups, the project would have allowed PXP to slant drill from Platform Irene into the Tranquillon Ridge Oil and Gas Field, located off the coast of Lompoc. In exchange for access to an estimated 200 million-plus barrels of oil, the company agreed to shut down four of its oil production facilities by 2022.

Officials from the Environmental Defense Center—the nonprofit law firm representing Get Oil Out! and the Citizens Planning Association of Santa Barbara County—called the project “an historic and unprecedented” agreement that would “help put a stop to oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast.”

These claims, however, did little to sway the majority of the three-person commission, which ultimately sided with its staff’s opinion that the project suffered from a litany of enforceability, transparency, and safety issues.

 “[This project] is not in the best interests of the state,” commission chair Lt. Gov. John Garamendi said while casting his no vote. “This issue is important to the entire state ... and the nation because it would provide a precedent for ‘drill, baby, drill’ proponents to urge Congress and the White House to resume offshore oil drilling.”

But—as most politicians and businessmen know—a lot can change in a year.

Since that fated hearing in January 2009, staunch PXP opponent Garamendi has left his position for a seat in the United States Congress. Slated to take his place pending legislative approval is the more conservative Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria), who was handpicked by PXP-friendly Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also serving on the commission is Schwarzenegger-appointed state director of finances Ana Matosantos.

And then there are changes to the project itself.

In an interview with the Sun, Environmental Defense Center chief counsel Linda Krop said she and her clients are “almost done negotiating” an updated agreement with PXP that “addresses the concerns raised by the commission.”

“Our goal is to clarify and strengthen the [project’s] provisions,” Krop said.

Unlike the original agreement, which received criticism from other environmentalist organizations for being too secretive, Krop said the new agreement will be made public once it’s completed.

To increase the project’s enforceability, the new agreement proposes making the state a third-party beneficiary, meaning the state would have the option of suing PXP for breech of contract.

Krop said the new agreement also includes certified title documentation for nearly 4,000 acres of PXP-owned land in Lompoc and Gaviota. The documentation would solidify the transfer of land ownership from PXP to the Trust for Public Land, should the project gain approval.

Lastly, Krop said, there have been “conversations with the federal government to ensure PXP would not be forced to continue producing oil” after the 2022 shutdown date.

Since the Tranquillon Ridge sits in both state and federal waters, opponents of the project feared the agreement could be challenged and ultimately nullified by the federal government.

Of course, it’s too soon to tell whether any of these adjustments will help get the project approved. The next step, Krop said, is to get another hearing before the State Lands Commission.

Until then, Krop said she’s trying to educate the public about the project by explaining its benefits to the environment.

“PXP is drilling from Platform Irene already ... and they’re going to keep draining that field slowly,” she said. “Our project will stop the drilling.”

Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.