The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors face a choice to promote a future of clean energy development in the county or double down on our past history of high-risk and polluting oil development. ERG and Aera’s dangerous oil project proposals are being stretched out to wear the county down and get officials to approve these high-intensity, long-term drilling schemes, through our drinking water aquifers.
A recent BNP Paribas Bank analysis predicts that oil prices are poised to crash due to future low demand, thanks to rapid clean solar/wind energy production worldwide. The report posits that further oil development will result in major bankruptcies of oil companies with local and national governments picking up the cleanup tab (thinkprogress.org, Aug. 8).
Does the county want to approve 30 to 40 year oil expansion projects in this environment? Haven’t we learned our lesson with the Venoco bankruptcy due to the Platform Holly cleanup costs?
Let’s nip this disaster in the bud!
Larry Bishop,
Buellton
This article appears in Aug 22-29, 2019.