Board of Supervisors lays groundwork for countywide oil and gas phaseout proposal

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Ten years almost to the date after the Refugio oil spill, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors revisited news headlines centered on the coastal disaster.

Second District Supervisor Laura Capps shared snippets of media coverage from May 2015 at the board’s May 13 meeting. She also compiled excerpts from articles on the 2017 Thomas Fire and local rain damage reports from 2023.

“I just want to remind ourselves that the climate-related disasters impact all of us,” Capps said. “These weather events are frightening, and we can’t afford to just keep our head in the sand.”

Capps made her comments after staff presented a rundown of potential measures the board could consider adopting to reduce emissions from local oil and gas production.

The board ultimately directed staff to draft a plan to enact a countywide ban on new oil and gas developments and a gradual phaseout of existing facilities.

“Process-wise, what we’re asking for … is to come back with a framework. It’s going to take a long time. You can’t flip a switch to do this,” Capps said at the meeting, “as much as part of me would like to, in terms of my fear and my urgency that I feel about the climate crisis.”

With a 3-1 vote, the board tasked staff to return later this year with the ban and phaseout proposal. Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson dissented, and 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino was absent.

Nelson said he was disappointed to learn that staff did not reach out to oil industry representatives for input while researching approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the county. 

“This is really discouraging to see these items on here that is potentially going to be putting people out of business and signaling to the industry that they’re not welcome in our county anymore, … without even having a conversation with them,” Nelson said. “I want to reiterate how disappointed I am with staff on working outside of a community conversation about this. This is a snow job, and it’s highly inappropriate. It’s some of the worst governance I’ve seen in my time here at the county.”

More than 20 people took part in public comment at the meeting, including Edward Hazard, president of the California chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO).

“It is clearly apparent that Supervisor Nelson is correct. … The NGOs have been working on this behind the scenes and we haven’t been invited to the table,” Hazard said. “I did not find out about today’s meeting and this agenda item until late Thursday. So we’ve had very little time to prepare for this.”

The next speaker to follow Hazard was Katie Davis, who spoke on behalf of the Sierra Club’s Santa Barbara-Ventura Chapter.

“The oil and gas industry was involved with the [county’s] climate action plan, … they could have been aware that this item was coming back and tracked it, just as we did,” Davis said. “Creating a plan to phase out fossil fuel production will help the county plan an orderly transition away from oil and gas; protect our health, environment, and economy; and help us truly meet our climate goals.”

This article appears in May 22 – Jun 1, 2025.