Imagine a world without fossil fuels; it would be dark, very few people, only foraged food, no houses, nothing but silence and emptiness.
This is the world that the movers and shakers in Santa Barbara County and statewide would like to take you to. Their endless assault on the production and use of fossil fuel is a testimony to the naivete of people who support those elected to serve the community.
If you take a deep dive into how fossil fuels are used, you’ll see that they are an essential part of everything you see around you or use every day. Even the electric vehicles that many activists claim will “save the environment” and free us from the evil oil rely heavily on fossil fuels during the production of the vehicle and later recharging the batteries.
And the “renewable energy” projects such as wind farms, solar panel plantations, and battery storage banks rely heavily on fossil fuels in the manufacturing phase. And consider this: You always hear about potential capacity of these projects during the sales pitches, but how often do you hear anything about the actual amount of energy produced, cost per kilowatt, or reliability of these systems?
Instead of creating a society where people can afford to survive and perhaps enjoy life, they choose to create situations where simply going to work consumes a large part of the family budget. Shutting down refineries and oil production facilities not only increases the cost per gallon but also requires refined products to be imported from out of state.
Another clueless move is the mantra that somehow the government can create affordable housing. Recently Sheila Lodge, the first female mayor of Santa Barbara, passed away. As the local media played clips of her campaign speeches over 30 years ago, she was championing “affordable housing.”
How did that work out? When you look at home sales data, you’ll notice that the average sale price for homes in South County starts at $1 million and above while those in North County, except for the Santa Ynez Valley, are well below that.
Why? Because the planners and elected officials of Santa Barbara seemed hell-bent on keeping the quaint and quiet atmosphere of the city by limiting new construction and using zoning codes to require expensive aesthetic conditions for new construction. And now they want to severely limit the ability of rental property owners to recover the cost of construction and maintenance of rental property by limiting the amount they can charge their tenants.
In contrast, Santa Maria seems to have a good planning process, as the city has grown dramatically over the last couple of decades. Large commercial projects and thousands of homes have been built.
On the other hand, Lompoc has been constricted by the Local Agency Formation Commission policies that have prevented annexation of adjacent land for new housing construction. And it’s probably no accident that in 2018 Lompoc reported that more than 75 percent of the total multi-family units are affordable as compared to a high of 7 percent in neighboring jurisdictions.
Considering all the obstacles the ruling class has placed for the construction of new homes, it’s a wonder that any are built at all. Maybe if the government stopped meddling in the housing and fossil fuel industries, things would be a little easier for working families to afford to survive and perhaps enjoy life.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in July 23 – July 30, 2026.
