Three cheers for vague, semi-specific press releases sent out by the state government! One particular choice piece of “news” released by the California Department of Conservation on Nov. 19 explains that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is placing a moratorium on “high pressure extraction practice” for oil wells.
Whatever that means.
Sidenote: The aptly named Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) that has done a pretty crappy job of regulating oil-type stuff, according to the state’s high pressure Newsom-haranguing environmental community, is also being renamed. Thanks to a stellar piece of legislation from Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), we will now refer to the department regulating mineral resource extraction as CalGEM (Geologic Energy Management Division), which is pretty damn cute, if you ask me.
Gems!! Get it? God, I love acronyms.
“This moratorium prohibits new extraction wells that use a high-pressure cyclic steaming process to break apart a geological formation to extract oil,” the statement said.
I’m guessing then, that the moratorium doesn’t apply to projects in Santa Barbara County, which use cyclic steam injection to heat the oil. So, is that kind of oil extraction considered “low pressure?”
The county Energy, Minerals, and Compliance Division Deputy Director John Zorovich, said he’s waiting on some clarification from the state before saying one way or the other.
In fact, everyone the Sun called that day was waiting on some clarity. And, my dearest of dear readers, this is why we can’t depend on press releases to get the word out to the public. Direct messages like that only contain the information that the messenger, in this case Newsom’s administration, wants you to know.
Meanwhile, the SLO County Air Pollution Control hearing board (APCD) is finally done dealing with State Park’s attempts to pretend like they’re playing by the rules at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. The short story is that a public workshop was canceled because State Parks missed yet another deadline. Well, for clarity, State Parks did submit the dust mitigation work plan it was supposed to, twice (one missed the deadline), but APCD Officer Gary Willey called them “grossly inadequate.”
Whoa, Gary, don’t get crazy or anything.
Also, no surprises there. The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife has been waiting on a habitat conservation plan for years and years because it’s required by the Endangered Species Act (save the snowy plovers, people!), and, yep. It’s still waiting. The California Coastal Commission has been haranguing State Parks to fix all of its weird little (OK, giant) permit compliance issues for years, and, yep. It’s still waiting.
Now the APCD is ordering State Parks to close off 48 more acres to off-roading. APCD hearing board member Robert Carr wanted to declare the Oceano Dunes a public nuisance (I’d consider it more of a pain in the ass than a nuisance, but tomato, to-mah-to).
But Acting Chair Yarrow Nelson seemed to be on a different planet than the rest of us.
“This stipulated process is working quite well,” Nelson said.
Yep. You’ll be waiting forever.
The canary is an impatient little bird. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 21-28, 2019.