City Council Votes Against Expanded Offshore Oil

This Silly Council is strong on useless and powerless proclamations and resolutions about things beyond their purview, to maintain their "image" amongst the liberals, but weak on action on things they were elected to do such as public safety. Speak for yourself Das, when you talk about what Santa Barbarans want or don't want. Are we actually worried about the environment or economy here, or about our "tarnished environmental legacy" so Marty can hold her head high at the Mayor's Conventions?

Only Dale Francisco has any sense.

THIS COUNCIL REPRESENTS A FEW SELFISH RICH PEOPLE, WHO DON'T CARE ABOUT THE POOR, HERE OR ABROAD.

‘Buy America Energy’ should be our focus for the future.
The world oil shortage is political, not geological.
In the U.S., the government prohibits drilling offshore, effectively blockading American companies from supplying oil to Americans so that foreigners can make obscene profits from our energy stupidity.

Low cost power is vital to an industrial economy, and we have ignored this vital infrastructure issue for 20 years or more. The entire economy and our communities are facing collapse because of the irrational ongoing attack on American Energy.

Our Modern Economy Still Needs Oil and Gas Today.
You all have to wake up and smell the energy roses that oil and gas represent today.
If the much maligned oil companies went on strike, within a month half the population would be dead;

LIFE WITHOUT HYDROCARBONS
Our entire modern society is build on fossil fuels. Without hydrocarbons fuel the United States would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country. Except that we would have 10 times as many people and no way to distribute food to most of them.

Your elected officials and the environmental movement have let you down, destroyed your life and sold out your Country….. and they don’t even know it! They certainly won’t admit it either.

Advocates for the continued American Energy Embargo are in the direct or unwitting employ of OPEC and Russia. These people should be had up on charges of economic treason, if not fired for anti-American activities, or gross incompetence.

To oppose developing America’s energy supplies immediately is Anti-American and akin to treason.
American oil is all under an OPEC sponsored embargo compliments of County, State and Congress Embargos, which are also ruining the Santa Barbara air quality and beach environment.

Santa Barbara’s beaches are heavily polluted with natural oil and tar seeps, which make the air unfit to breathe and the water unfit to swim in.

Its not pristine beaches “environmentalists” and County officials are protecting, its only OPEC’s and big oil’s profits. These people are traitors to their enviro-supporters and traitors to America.

Good going city council. I live in Goleta where any spill would be disastrous. The county board does not represent the entire county - ie the 20,000 IV students, so their decision should be put into perspective.

If the few supporting drilling would agree to drink up all the oil should any spill happen, then I will gladly support expanded oil drilling.

*crickets*

ok puppet, I will drink up all the oil that spills (eye roll). Can we drill now? I'm not too worried about the will of 20,000 students that will be gone in 2 to 4 years. They shouldn't even have a vote on local issues, seeing as they won't be living here. I will support an oil ban when everyone stops driving, buying manufactured products, eating and flying places.

Let's take a look at what happens with expanded oil drilling, take the Gulf of Mexico for example, it's an ecological disaster. Every year there is a leak, a month ago the smell was so bad in New Orleans due to the oil leaks that tourists avoided the French Quarter. You can either be tourist-friendly or oil-friendly, you can't be both at the same time. Unless you want to give a counter-example.

If you think drilling off the coast of SB will actually bring down oil prices, you are flat out wrong, it's a drop in the bucket, but I do agree it will increase profits for oil companies. The oil would be sold on the open market, exported outside of SB and the USA, and it wouldn't make a dent in oil prices.

Your stance on disenfranchising 20,000 voters is revealing.

AShaw, that is the dumbest argument I have ever heard.. NOT allowing students to vote on local issues?! Do they not live here?? They will clearly vote as if they were going to live here in a few years, and guess what? There will be another 20,000 like-minded students taking their place in 4 years that they get to represent. Not allowing their voices to be heard on local issues is an extremely ignorant position to hold.

Horray for the city council. I believe they do represent the will of the people here in Santa Barbara and our close by neighbors, who I am glad they are concerned for and rightly so.

I believe that local communities should be able to decide on offshore drilling. The places with the highest environmental impact will ultimately decide against drilling due to the population's analysis of the higher risk associated with their area. It's almost like a free-market solution.

Lift the Federal Ban and give local communities the highest authority, and then states.

I'm trying to figure out how it hurts you people for oil companies to make a profit delivering a product to you that you use - wittingly or unwittingly. Businesses are in business to make profits, it isn't an evil thing. If they weren't, who would want to do this dirty work of battling environmentalists, speculative drilling, refining etc to feed the machine that we all benefit from? If you don't drive a car, eat food, buy any products, travel by rail or air, then your complaints about profit making are valid. Otherwise you are hypocritical.

Don't forget that oil production also provides local revenue and much needed tax income not only locally, but for the state of California. You are probably the same people that complain when state workers get laid off and the schools don't have enough money to meet budgets and provide for all of the liberal programs you cherish, right?

Loon they live here but have no future or past here, no investment here, nothing at stake.