Members of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors have made their voices heard, and the majority of them are encouraging oil exploration. The board voted 3-2 on Aug. 26 to send a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking him to reconsider his policy on offshore drilling.
For the record, Schwarzenegger is against offshore drilling. So are supervisors Janet Wolf and Salud Carbajal. Supervisors Brooks Firestone, Joni Gray, and Joe Centeno are for it.
After a full day of deliberation, the majority decided to send their letter, while the two dissenters sent letters of their own. And what does this all mean for the future of offshore drilling? Well, nothing—at least not directly.
The board doesn’t have the power to make offshore drilling legal, but it does, in theory, represent the voices of constituents. That representation—or lack thereof—is what’s upsetting local environmental groups.
“To us, it’s a distinct example of bad leadership,” said Abraham Powell, leader of the Santa Barbara-based Get Oil Out!.
“It doesn’t have any real weight. It’s symbolic,” he said of the majority’s letter. “It’s symbolic of really bad judgment.”
Powell’s organization is one of four environmental groups that banded together to make their displeasure with the majority letter known. Get Oil Out! released a statement—along with the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), Community Environmental Council, and the Santa Barbara County Action Network.
Linda Krop, chief counsel for the EDC, spoke against offshore drilling at the board meeting, “It came as a bit of a surprise,” she said of the letter. “Just last year, the board supported the moratorium.”
Krop also emphasized that the letter has no significance, except as a way for the board members to get a message out to their constituents.
“There’s no impact,” she said. “The only other possible motivation would be political, because there’s a national debate going on, and they want to come out in support of oil.”
At the meeting, Supervisor Firestone said that he was coming out in support of oil exploration now because of a need for more oil. He also pointed out that technology is much more advanced today than it was at the time of the major oil spill that occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969.
That spill inspired the formation of both the Community Environmental Council and Get Oil Out!. It also cemented Santa Barbara as a leader in the environmental movement, according to Powell.
“Santa Barbara has a symbolic role as a fountainhead of the environmental movement,” he said.
Because of that reputation, national attention on the oil issue has been misleading, Krop said. Recent articles in the New York Times and other publications have talked about a change, and how Santa Barbara has become more pro-oil, and that’s just not true, she said.
“The city of Santa Barbara has never wavered,” Krop said. “For the county, this was not a big change.”
That difference between South County and North County ideologies was apparent at the board meeting, Powell said. He was at the meeting in Santa Maria and estimated that the sentiment in the room was about 60/40 pro-oil. In contrast, the meeting room in Santa Barbara was full of almost entirely anti-oil activists, he said.
In addition to highlighting the board’s overall policy shift toward a more pro-oil platform, the letter sent by the Board of Supervisors also highlighted the policy differences between different parts of the county.
The letter written by supervisors Wolf (from Santa Barbara) and Carbajal (representing Carpinteria) encouraged the governor not to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling and stated that they were representing the interests of their “southern Santa Barbara County constituents.”
The 4th and 5th Districts have traditionally been anti-oil, Powell said. He predicted that the race for the third district seat is going to get heated after Supervisor Firestone steps down. That’s the swing vote that could change the way the board deals with energy policy in the future. And, unlike offshore drilling, it could see change because of the majority letter.
“I think it’s going to change the way people vote in the next election,” Powell said.
Contact Sports Editor Sarah E. Thien at sthien@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2008.