• Approximately 190 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves are estimated to remain in the area off the coast of Santa Barbara County, according to the federal Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which announced on July 25 that it was working with Sable Offshore Corporation to bring a second Santa Ynez Unit offshore oil platform online by October 2025—Platform Heritage. “President Trump made it clear that American energy should come from American resources,” bureau Principal Deputy Director Kenneth Stevens stated in the announcement. “Thanks to his leadership and Secretary [Doug] Burgum’s commitment, we’ve turned a decade-long shutdown into a comeback story for Pacific production. … That’s what energy dominance looks like: results, not delays.” The Department of the Interior anticipates all three platforms—Harmony (which restarted earlier this year), Heritage, and Hondo—to be online by the end of 2025. U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) issued a statement in response, saying it was a “concerning development for Central Coast residents, many of whom vividly remember the devastating impacts of the 1969 Santa Barbara and 2015 Refugio oil spills.” The Santa Ynez Unit has been offline since the 2015 spill, and Sable purchased the facility, its platforms, and pipelines from Exxon Mobil in 2024. The company has been attempting to get all of its assets up and running since then. “Time and time again, our community has experienced the acute dangers that come with Big Oil’s reckless extraction practices, which jeopardize our coastal ecosystems, public health, and outdoor recreation,” Carbajal said. “Restarting these rigs only enriches Big Oil, while sacrificing the Central Coast’s environmental and public health. I will continue to work with state and local partners to fight back against efforts to expand offshore oil drilling on the Central Coast.”
• Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) issued a statement in response to what her office said was the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the urgent need for access to basic aid. “What’s unfolding in Gaza is indefensible. Innocent civilians should be protected, not starved. No child should go to bed feeling hungry, and no family should face violence or persecution for trying to feed themselves,” Addis said in the July 30 statement. “Meeting basic needs is not a concession, it’s a fundamental obligation. As the efforts continue to bring hostages home, we must ensure that essential aid reaches those who need it and is never used as political leverage.”
• California now has the largest civilian helicopter firefighting fleet in the world, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office. The governor announced on July 31 that Cal Fire added the final two of 16 Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk helicopters to McClellan Airfield in Sacramento. Their arrival completes a multi-year transition upgrading the state’s aerial firefighting capabilities. Firehawks increase water-dropping capacity, enhance night operations, expand capacity for crewmembers and capabilities, and improve flight safety. “Our fleet of Firehawk helicopters … is a proven tool in our growing firefighting arsenal,” Newsom said in a statement. “During the devastating Los Angeles fires, we saw them in action, conducting critical missions at night, which stopped the Palisades Fire from dipping into Mandeville Canyon and toward the 405 freeway. Hundreds of homes were saved because of these state-of-the-art helicopters and their heroic pilots. With the Trump administration pulling back on federal firefighting, California continues to step up to protect our communities.” As part of the state’s investments in wildfire resilience, Cal Fire has also expanded its workforce over the past five years by adding an average of 1,800 full-time positions and 600 seasonal positions annually, nearly double that of the previous administration, according to the governor’s office.
This article appears in Aug 14-24, 2025.