Tensions surrounding the oil and gas industry in Santa Barbara County may ramp up in the near future, as legislation from U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) proposing to ban new offshore drilling clashes with President Donald Trump’s promise to expand offshore oil and gas production in the U.S.
The Clean Coast Act, proposed by Carbajal in late January, would permanently ban future offshore oil leases in federal waters off the California coast. Meanwhile, Republicans and oil industry trade groups are threatening to attack similar bans implemented by the Obama administration in large parts of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
Some, like Andy Caldwell of the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture, and Business, argue that given the current political climate, spending efforts on legislation like the Clean Coast Act is a misallocation of resources.
“On a practical level, it’s dead on arrival in a Trump administration,” Caldwell said of Carbajal’s bill. “I don’t even think it’s going to fare very well in Congress.”
Still, Carbajal said it’s worthwhile to attempt an oil production ban offshore in California, even if it can’t compete with the Trump administration’s interests.
“President Trump is going to do what President Trump wants to do, or thinks he needs to do,” Carbajal told the Sun. “But I think California is always going to stay steadfast against offshore oil production in California, especially in federal waters.”
Carbajal’s bill comes nearly two years after the May 19, 2015, Refugio oil spill, in which a corroded pipeline owned by Plains All American leaked 142,800 gallons of crude oil into waters offshore from Refugio State Beach. The spill highlighted the risks offshore oil drilling poses to both the environment and the economy, according to Environmental Defense Center Senior Counsel Linda Krop.
“From the Refugio oil spill, we had fishing shut down for two months,” Krop said. “Tourism was affected for many months, because people thought they couldn’t come here and go anywhere on the Santa Barbara coast because of the oil spill.”
Carbajal added that his legislation wouldn’t immediately affect the oil industry in Santa Barbara County because it only bans new drilling leases.
“My bill would focus on future offshore oil development, which would not create a shock to the economy in any way, shape, or form,” Carbajal said. “This is something that would be of the future.”
The Santa Barbara Channel’s federal waters haven’t seen new oil or gas leases since 1984, according to Krop. But she said the Trump administration might want to change that.
“Those areas could be re-leased in the future,” she said. “So we definitely see a threat here, because there are some oil and gas reserves here and because this administration seems to be very pro-fossil fuel.”
Still, it appears oil companies are having trouble with attempts to expand operations in federal waters off the California coast. For example, the DCOR oil exploration company applied on Dec. 6 to start a new fracking project off of Platform Gilda in the Santa Barbara Channel. Nearly three months later, the federal agencies in charge have yet to decide on the company’s request.
Krop added that Santa Barbara County’s economy depends much more on clean energy industries than it does on oil production, but Caldwell begged to differ.
He argued that oil companies are key players in the county’s property tax revenue, and numbers from the county’s latest financial report back him up. In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, oil companies (with both onshore and offshore operations) accounted for three of the county’s top 10 principal property taxpayers.
Venoco and Exxon, both of which drill offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel, each contributed more than $3 million in property taxes. Pacific Coast Energy Company, an onshore company, paid $2.6 million. Together, the three companies paid 1.3 percent of the total property taxes levied by the county.
But Carbajal said that new renewable energy projects could make up for any negative economic impact of losing oil-drilling operations.
“As existing oil companies actually go away, or deplete their resources, we will have less of a threat,” Carbajal said. “It’ll be a step down, but yet a step up, by investing in renewable energy resources and new jobs.”
Economic arguments aside, moving away from oil and toward renewables would be a smart move from an environmental standpoint, Krop said—especially with the looming potential of new drilling in federal waters for the first time in decades.
“We could see a renewed threat that would cause all sorts of impacts to our region’s air quality, more risks of oil spills, water pollution, and interference with fishing and sensitive resources,” Krop said.
The total environmental impact of offshore oil production—and even of large-scale oil spills—is difficult to quantify. The Environmental Defense Center has battled federal agencies for the past year in attempts to get a thorough environmental review of offshore oil projects, especially those using fracking.
But Carbajal said that with the recent confirmation of Scott Pruitt as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal government might actually ease up on monitoring the environmental effects of oil production.
Pruitt is known to have coordinated with major oil and gas producers to roll back environmental regulations in the past, according to emails recently made public by the Oklahoma attorney general’s office.
“It’s disconcerting that you would have somebody leading an agency who has vowed in so many different ways, through litigation and through overt statements, vowing to be against all the things the EPA has stood for,” Carbajal said.
He added, “Protecting the American public from environmental disasters, making sure Americans have clean water, clean air, a sustainable environment—this person represents the antithesis of the agency he’s now leading.”
On the other hand, Caldwell said the elimination of offshore oil production might work against environmental interests in the long run.
He pointed out that California is one of the most “car-centric” regions in the U.S., bringing in oil from other states and countries.
“These tankers, they’re basically traveling halfway around the world to bring us oil,” Caldwell said. “How is it environmentally conscious to basically bring it in from Saudi Arabia instead of producing it in our own backyard?”
Looking forward for Santa Barbara County’s oil industry, Carbajal said he expects the environmental-economic tensions will remain.
“This industry contributes to our economy, but just as it contributes, it’s a major threat to our economy because of the threats it has evidently displayed in various accidents,” Carbajal said. “Renewable energy sources is really what the future holds.”
Staff Writer Brenna Swanston can be reached at bswanston@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 2-9, 2017.
