PXP Deal Defeated

I trust Nick to do a thorough job on this. I expect many like me don't really understand what went on here. Also what next? Difficult to believe in our government there is no appeal and no next step?

Transparency is important to the new administration in Washington and should be practiced by all who seek to make decisions for the benefit of the public. Why allow a "secret agreement" as the basis for a decision which would be seen as a shift or change in governmental policy?
If the oil producer and the "protectors" are not willing to disclose, no deal.

infosource, are you reading the same article as I am? "Secret deal"? The agreement between PXP and Santa Barbara County, EDC, and so forth is completely public and was covered quite thoroughly in the news.

Just Google "Tranquillion Ridge".

For CharlesB and others: The staff report posted on the State Lands Commission web-site confirms that only a few staff persons were allowed to see the full agreement which was submitted as "confidential" and they were not allowed to disclose the actual contents. The above article and Angry Poodle missed that fact. The Agreement was not negotiated by the County and the County is not a party to the Agreement. The State Lands Commission attorneys, who work for the State, and the staff of the Commission agreed, that one cannot assume in view of federal pre-emption and other legal hurdles that the agreement will be successful. The State Lands Commission attorneys should be commended for their due diligence report which put their legal analysis and the unknowns on the table for all to see. If anyone wants to use the "confidential" agreement as a basis for public decision making, it needs to be a public document.
The State Lands Commission exists to protect the interests of the State and that includes the residents. Again, if not made public, no deal.

Infosource is correct. The secrecy of the deal is unacceptable. Krop and EDC/GOO/CPA have egg on their face because they neglected to inform the State Lands Commission Staff as to what they were contemplating, this because of the need for secrecy. Had SLC Staff known early on that this deal included an end date for oil production in Federal waters mandated not by the Federals but by a contract between EDC and PXP I am quite sure they would have nixed the deal early on and we would have avoided this bloodletting between environmentalist. This was handled in a very bad way by EDC.

It's to bad state politicians used a technicality to stop a good plan from ending offshore oil drilling.

This plan would have set a precedent for finally ending drilling along all of the American coastlines.

How big oil interests got influence over Garamendi and state assembly members would make an excellent investigative story. It's hard to believe these politicians were so ignorant as to believe the rhetoric they were espousing about protection for our coast when now we are left with endless drilling.