Santa Barbara County planning staffers haven’t changed their original recommendation for the Santa Maria Energy’s proposed oil well expansion project in the Orcutt Hills, but they have released the latest changes to the project’s draft documents.
The original recommendation to the Planning Commission was to approve the project—which sets out to increase the energy company’s number of wells from 26 to 136—with a 29 percent of business-as-usual cap on greenhouse gas emissions. That rule would require Santa Maria Energy to mitigate for 29 percent—a little more than 25,000 metric tons—of the 87,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases produced by the project.
Plans also call for installation of an oil pipeline to carry crude from the field to an existing Phillips 66 pipeline, as well as construction of a water pipeline to bring recycled water from the Laguna County Sanitation District to the field for cyclic steam injection.
Planning commissioners voted 3-2 in May to send just the emissions portion of the project back to county staffers to explore stricter greenhouse gas mitigation options. A public hearing held on Aug. 8 started the recirculation process for that portion of the project document.
The new draft outlines what it would mean for the company, county, and state if Santa Maria Energy were to mitigate for 29 percent, 50 percent, or 90 percent of emissions, or for anything greater than 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy specialist and county planner Kevin Drude said the same speakers who spoke against the emissions mitigation proposal at the April and May Planning Commission meetings spoke at the Aug. 8 meeting. They think requiring Santa Maria Energy to mitigate for only 29 percent of business as usual isn’t good enough.
Drude said that, at this point in the process, the county staff hasn’t heard anything substantial enough to change the original recommendation.
“We have yet to decide, to be honest,” Drude said. “It depends on what we learn from public comment.”
Current California law requires projects producing more than 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases to mitigate for 16 percent of their emissions.
Santa Maria Energy spokesperson Bob Poole said speakers at the public hearing on Aug. 8 were asking for more than they should.
“They want us to mitigate all our greenhouse gas emissions and [they] think that we have the money to do it,” Poole said. “We don’t understand why they think we have the money to pay for whatever regulations they make up.”
Mitigation measures generally mean companies purchase credits either through the Cap-and-Trade system or from the world market for greenhouse gas emission credits. Companies that have already reduced their greenhouse gas emissions sell the credits, which can be pricey.
The project will most likely come back before the Planning Commission in September. Documents for the project are available at sbcountyplanning.org.
This article appears in Aug 15-22, 2013.