Santa Barbara County supervisors did their part to make fuels more expensive when they passed an ordinance to ban new onshore oil and gas drilling in the county on Sept. 15. You can say that when the supes took this action, they didn’t miss the elephant in the room, but the foreign oil tanker.
As California has been shutting down the oil industry in our state, the only thing that has been accomplished is making us more dependent on foreign oil. That is, we didn’t eradicate our use of oil, only the local source. And the countries from which we are now getting our oil are considered “gross polluters” because they lack the pollution control measures we have in California. So, the action by the board will increase the world’s greenhouse gases and genuine pollution, a fine example of virtue signaling, I might add.
The volume of imports we are discussing? California now imports more than 280 million barrels of oil every year. Ignorance of this dramatic shift to foreign sources, including the Middle East, is not bliss for consumers, especially when it comes to gasoline prices, as our pain at the pump is a result of these types of policy choices in our state.
Not only that, but now we are also importing gasoline, millions of barrels of refined gasoline, much of which comes from halfway around the world, including Asia, India, South Korea, and Taiwan, which account for two-thirds of California’s gasoline imports.
Instead of reducing greenhouse gases, we increased them by having all these ships bringing oil to our state.
So, instead of reducing greenhouse gases, we increased them by having all these ships bringing oil to our state. However, here a distinction needs to be made. One of the biggest lies involving the climate change war is that CO2 emissions constitute “pollution.” The opposite is true. CO2 emissions green the planet. Without these “emissions” the planet would die. You would think the greenies wouldn’t lie about something as obvious as that. Yet, what comes out of the smokestack of a tanker bringing oil and gas to California is real air pollution. Hence, this action by the board of supes will serve to negatively affect air quality.
Another huge omission from this discussion about banning oil and gas production is that nearly half of every barrel of oil isn’t used to produce fuel. It is used to make asphalt, tires, plastic, and thousands of other products, including the natural gas used to heat your home and cook your food. Even if we did manage to switch entirely to so-called renewable energy sources, we would still need oil and gas derivatives and byproducts to provide society with these valuable products we can’t live without. The lefties never want to discuss this point.
Finally, at the Sept. 15 hearing, there was a moment when the obvious was pointed out to the oblivious. Supervisor Joan Hartmann was on a rant claiming that every fire in our region, along with the related deadly Montecito debris flow, was a result of climate change, which she blamed on the oil industry. When a fellow supervisor pointed out that many of the fires in our region were started by storm-driven events involving electrical lines, she didn’t miss a beat despite that “mic drop” moment! And after she finished, Supervisor Laura Capps continued the diatribe, as oblivious as ever.
Relatedly, it is completely hypocritical that county supervisors are suing a utility for damages associated with the fire that set up Montecito for the debris flow while publicly blaming the oil industry.
Now, please consider their blatant failures pertaining to these two industries. The supes have done absolutely nothing to help the utilities clear-cut around their power lines, which is standard practice in other states, and which would alleviate many fire dangers. Moreover, these same supervisors have continually raised legal objections in court about the continued operations of pipelines having to do with Sable, claiming the pipeline is unsafe, all the while making every effort to block repairs, upgrades, and replacements of the pipeline.
That is not public service; that is diabolical intransigence.
Andy Caldwell writes to the Sun from Santa Maria. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in October 22 – October 29, 2026.
