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Yahoo!Get Oil Out! (GOO!), Citizens Planning Association (CPA), and the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) would like to thank the hundreds of people who supported the Tranquillon Ridge project before the State Lands Commission on January 29 [“Oily Dog Gets Wormed,” 1/29/09, independent.com/oilydog]. Approval of this project, along with the environmental groups’ agreement, would have set a remarkable precedent by shutting down existing oil development from four offshore platforms and two onshore facilities. Without this project, these facilities can operate indefinitely, threatening our coast with serious impacts and perpetuating global climate change. Our agreement also guaranteed carbon neutrality, provided funds to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Santa Barbara County, and required Plains Exploration and Production (PXP) to convey 3,900 acres of land for public conservation purposes in perpetuity.
GOO!, CPA, and EDC have worked hard for the last 40 years to protect our coast from oil development. More than 20 environmental groups from around the state, including the Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation, supported this landmark agreement, along with several elected officials, including Congressmember Capps, Santa Barbara County supervisors Carbajal, Wolf, and Farr, and a host of city representatives from around the county.
Forty years ago our community experienced a devastating oil spill. At that time, we hoped that offshore oil development would become a thing of the past. Instead, we have watched as more and more oil platforms have cropped up off our coast. Who would have thought that 40 years later we would still be fighting to "get oil out"? We hope that in the future our state government will support our efforts to end oil production and reverse our dependence on fossil fuels. — Abe Powell, president, GOO!; Steve Dunn, president, CPA; Linda Krop, chief counsel, EDC
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I like the irony: "more oil platforms have kropped up..."
By the way the disaster in 1969 was not a spill, it was a blowout. Haven't had a SBC blowout since. Spills come from the transportation of oil - unrelated to drilling!!
I like my fast car (NOT a Prius), ride a bike and recycle - even voted for Obama. But I sure do hate being "represented" by knuckleheads from GOO, CPA and EDC.
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osotoh (anonymous profile)
March 5, 2009 at 2:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We stopped communicating by smoke signals not because of some clean air movement.
Smoke signals were made obsolete by American ingenuity with technologically superior and economically competitive telecommunication innovations by inventors and industrialists such as Bell.
In a capitalistic global economy the only way oil drilling will be eliminated is to make fossil fuel obsolete with innovations in economically more competitive and environmentally more benign energy technologies. The PXP proposal was nothing more than a rush to drill and profit before the competitors arrive.
We should be grateful to Garamendi, Chang, the State Lands staff and those vigilant environmentalist who saw through the smoke and mirrors illusion of now you see me drill then you won’t, concocted by the sorcerer’s apprentices.
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GOOfy (anonymous profile)
March 8, 2009 at 6:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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