A purely symbolic vote to support the Green New Deal, proposed federal legislation aimed at limiting climate change, sparked a tense conversation between Santa Barbara County supervisors during a meeting in June.
Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam kicked off the debate with a 20-minute monologue, where he claimed there isn’t consensus among the scientific community on climate change and recalled times throughout history when environmentalists previously made apocalyptic predictions that turned out to be wrong.
He also responded to comments 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann made during a May 21 meeting where Adam felt like she compared him and other climate change skeptics to Nazis.
“I’ve had many disagreements with the seats on this dais, but I have never felt so viciously and wrongly attacked by a colleague as I did on May 21,” Adam said.
Hartmann didn’t respond directly to Adam’s comments during her time speaking on the resolution. Instead, she discussed why denying climate change is no longer an option and mentioned Republican officials throughout the country who are beginning to embrace changes to address the issue.
The conversation among supervisors began after 14 people spoke in favor and against the resolution during a public comment period. During his comments, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino rhetorically asked people who spoke on the topic whether the supervisors’ discussion had persuaded them to feel different about climate change.
“That’s why I’m not a big fan of hijacking the time we have set aside for honorary resolutions to force meaningless, nonbinding votes on politically-charged wedge issues,” Lavagnino said. “It’s great for sound bites, it’s great for theater, but for me, all it does is ramp everybody up and get everybody upset.”
Although the resolution is inconsequential, 1st District Supervisor Das Williams said, it’s important for the county to support the measure and be a leader in addressing climate change through local policies.
“This is a symbolic act, but while the country is convulsed in debate over this, I think it’s appropriate for us to take a stand,” Williams said.
Ultimately supervisors approved the resolution, with Lavagnino and Adam voting against it. While the resolution was symbolic, more practical conversations regarding climate change could come up in future meetings as the county weighs numerous oil and gas projects that could end up on the supervisors’ agenda.
Exxon Mobil submitted a proposal to begin trucking oil to refinery sites throughout the county in 2017. Additionally, energy companies ERG and Aera have both submitted project proposals to build more than 500 oil wells in the Cat Canyon oil field.
This article appears in Jun 13-20, 2019.
