I would like to offer my congratulations to the EDC for their great victory against the people of Santa Barbara County.
The consistent extremist anti-petroleum posturing in Santa Barbara County is nothing if it is not consistent. It never ceases to amaze me, their ability to attack an entire industry with no accountability to the community, and none demanded by their elected puppets. Let us tally up their great victory: 1) They have proven that even when all the complex safety requirements and the regulatory demands are met, they still say “no” (what a surprise). 2) The devastating financial hit that the community will incur due to the loss in tax revenue. 3) The staggering volume of the loss of high-paying head-of-household jobs.
If you ran for office with this as your platform you would likely be run out of town. Yet these environmental extremists are, as it appears, now running our county. I refuse to allow these fanatics to own the moniker “environmentalist.”
But let’s get real here. These people offer no solutions! They are operating under the delusion of “noble cause corruption” and expect all to bow down to them without question. The reality is that this so-called “victory” has done nothing for the environment but add harm. As the activists continue to drive to their demonstrations, the gas they use will now be coming from foreign suppliers that embrace no environmental regulations, not to mention that this fuel will need to be transported via tanker using bunker fuel (look it up).
They seem to only be discussing petroleum as a fuel for cars; are they so ignorant that they fail to understand that all plastics are derived from oil? Do they understand that their electric car is 50 percent made from oil-derived plastics? What about medical supplies, cellphones, asphalt, or any one of the thousands of products that are in all our homes right now! I do not think there is an option to replace these life-saving products by way of wind- or solar-generating processes.
Why are they stopping short and attacking only oil producers? When will they start attacking all of us for falling short of realizing their one-sided view of reality? Make no mistake, climate change is a global issue. Santa Barbara is already doing more than its share. No matter how much the EDC strives to stroke its own ego by pushing for 110 percent capitulation despite the social and economic harm to the community they claim to serve, it will have little impact on the global climate.
It is almost laughable until you understand that there are real victims of this political power grab, and those victims are all of us.
Michael G. Lopez, business manager, U.A. Plumbers and Pipefitters, Local Union 114
Buellton
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 3, 2020.
