Santa Maria Sun / News

Earth First! activists descend on Santa Barbara to oppose Tranquillon Ridge Project

BY AMY ASMAN

Another environmental group has added its name to the ever-growing list of organizations voicing disapproval of an oil-drilling agreement between Plains Exploration Production Co. (PXP) and a trio of Santa Barbara-based environmental groups.

Activists belonging to the international organization Earth First! gathered in protest Feb. 15 at the PXP petroleum processing plant and the headquarters of the Environmental Defense Center, a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit legal agency, “to expose corporate ‘greenwashing’ and confront key actors in offshore drilling,” according to a release to the media.

Earth First! members began their protesting-packed day rallying outside the processing plant, and later moved to the center’s headquarters. The group is accusing the center of collaborating with PXP to expand drilling off the California coast.

The activists ended the day at the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center, at the corner of State and De La Guerra streets, to inform the public about offshore oil drilling and conduct a sidewalk press conference for the media.

Just prior to the protest, Earth First! held a national strategy session in the mountains above Santa Barbara to discuss ways to kill the PXP project. If approved, the project would allow 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 is agreeing to shut down four of its oil production facilities by 2022.

The California State Lands Commission denied the project more than a year ago, but PXP and EDC officials have said they are in the process of brokering a new agreement that addresses the commission’s concerns.

“The platforms that PXP has pledged to shut down are already running dry; the Gaviota plant itself is already partially abandoned. None of PXP’s supposed concessions actually force anything onto the company that they would not have done anyway,” Earth First! officials said in the release. “Earth First! activists are calling on the EDC to reclaim its position as a trusted environmental organization and reject attempts to greenwash oil drilling.”

Some other groups opposed to the project include the Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation, and the Florida Audubon Society.