Hundreds Gather to Protest Venoco Vote

photos coming?

In the face of all these terrible images from the Gulf, Das Williams who supports new drilling via the PXP deal has the nerve to come to this event and pontificate? Is supporting the first new lease in 41 years "moving toward green energy" Das?

It's great to see the community come out an oppose such a terrible project. I don't know about the politicians though- especially Das Williams. It is hard to believe that he can say the phrase "murky politics" with a straight face. If I am not mistaken the sole basis for his becoming a candidate was his support for a misguided oil drilling proposal. It really doesn't get murkier than that.

What's really alarming about this whole thing is that, despite the fact that Venoco engaged in bait and switch tactics to get it on the ballot, trying to trick voters into signing a petition for it, or the fact that their EIR was a disaster and that they were caught in several lies with made up quotes and statistics, they STILL have gotten this far with it.

It's a nightmare of epic proportion for Carpinteria, it's not overstating things to say that it may well be the worst proposal for our city yet.

Another abuse of the initiative process by big money and lobbying.

Paddling and pedaling are much better ways to generate energy than drilling and spilling. Let's harness energy from all the exercise equipment being used indoors and outdoors - from surfboards to treadmills. Then we won't need no stinkin' Paredons.

There's a small but significant error in the article. Seth Miller writes, "Venoco first attempted to get Paredon approved by the City of Carpinteria, but the City Council stonewalled the proposal..." That's not true. Neither city officials nor the city council ever "stonewalled" the original Paredon proposal. It required lengthy environmental review, true, but that review proceeded normally, and in fact was just reaching the stage where the city's planning commission and city council would have begun to hold public hearings for final certification of the environmental impact report. It was Venoco that pulled the plug on that process, canceling the original project in order to substitute the more Venoco-friendly version in Measure J.

I've heard supporters of Measure J argue that Venoco had no choice but to turn to a ballot initiative, because it was impossible for the company to get a fair hearing via the normal approval process. That argument would carry more weight with me, though, if Venoco had actually allowed that process to reach a decision. Then, if the project had been rejected, and if Venoco felt it had been treated unfairly, it could have made its case to the public. Instead, it decided that it would have a better chance of swaying voters to its side if it did so before letting the original project receive a full public airing.

Measure J is an attempt to bypass the city's oversight. It rewrites the city's planning laws to create two classes of Carpinterians: Venoco, who gets special treatment and whose interests are paramount, and everyone else. That's all it does. It doesn't prevent offshore drilling, or initiate a "full environmental review," like Venoco's misleading ads state.

Read the initiative.

Props to Carrie Reynolds for organizing the paddle protest against Measure J, greed and shady oil lobbyists.

Jack Johnson (Song artist, UCSB grad and occasional Montecito resident) has something to say about oil drilling in his song “The Horizon Has Been Defeated”:

“…the rigs begin to drill until the drilling goes too far. Things can go bad and make you want to run away".

I'm pulling for you Carpinteria!

Does anybody here think that BP is going to put up enough money to completely bear the responsibility for the cleanup of the recent spill? Why not? I'll tell you why, because of regulatory agencies that have been setup by the government to protect these companies. That's right, if you are a real environmentalist then you've noticed how destructive environmental regulations are to our planet. They don't hold these companies accountable, they allow them to destroy our air and property.

Imagine of BP was required to clean up and restore every square foot of coastline that they destroyed. They would have to sell a lot of their equipment, maybe all of it to pay for the clean up. Who would buy the equipment? It's pretty risky considering how much money one has to cough up if something goes wrong. They probably wouldn't be able to sell the equipment for very much for that very reason, and this would force them to sell even more of their drilling equipment. BP would go bankrupt in a free market that protected property rights. Instead they are considered "too big to fail" and are protected by the regulatory agencies. Just like the banks. The banks did the same thing, the government allowed them to leverage up with artificially cheap credit provided by the Fed (which is WHY we are in so much debt, because of the artificially low interest rates). So the government allowed them to take on these extraordinary risks and then protected them from losses. This is referred to as privatized gains and public losses. This is corporatism at it's finest, and it is all caused by government mandate.

What we need to do is take regulations off the private sector and simply hold them accountable for their actions. The only people we need to "regulate" is the government itself.

How this issue relates, well, I think if this company is going to be PROTECTED by these regulatory agencies, then they should ensure that what they are doing is going to be safe, because the government has taken away the free market mechanisms that would force this company to undertake projects that carry minimal risk. If this is our only safe guard against environmental destruction then we have to use it, but hopefully one day we will be able to hold them accountable for their actions.

I honestly feel that Measure J will have a negative impact on the area and shouldn't be passed(like so many others). What else can one do to make sure this does NOT pass?

I agree, ThosOnTheNose.

Measure J would be devastating for Carpinteria. Kind of reminds you of the movie "Avatar", doesn't it?

Not really, as south coasters need their gasoline powered vehicles and would never give them up. They love oil, they just don't want it produced in their own area.

The Paredon project is just plain dumb, and most people in Carpinteria know it. Measure J should fail miserably.

Thankfully Das Williams supports a plan that actually gets rid of oil rigs. Letting rigs operate for an eternity makes another oil spill more likely.

CalGalSB....It certainly does. I don't reside in Carpinteria but, Measure J shouldn't pass imo.

rc251, Santa Barbara County (both North and South) have paid their dues to the oil industry. I would imagine (though I do not have the hard data to support my supposition) that more oil has been taken from the petroleum producing formations in Santa Barbara County and in the Outer Continental Shelf offshore Santa Barbara County than all the oil consumed by the County's residents ever. Furthermore, the citizens of fair Carpinteria are not saying no to Venoco, they are simply saying no to the underhanded manner which Venoco is employing to skirt the public process established to review such projects. Changing the rules of a game because they don't suit you violates everything we humans understand as fairness. Win, lose, or draw, Venoco should play by rules.

The Govinator was quoted today as saying that seeing video of the BP disaster, in the Gulf of Mexico, has led him to change his mind, about offshore drilling, off the California Coast! I think he owns property, in the Carpinteria foothills, as well, which might have had some bearing on his decision to pursue alternatives, to offshore drilling, as he goes into retirement, next year. One thing that puzzles me is, why did it take viewing said video, to get a negative opinion of offshore drilling? There was plenty of foottage, of a documentary sort, from the 1969 spill, available, to foment such an opinion, before now! Has he changed his mind or is there something else up his sleeve, beside his well developed arm?

I haven't read enough about this proposal to make an educated comment about it, so I was careful in post not espouse support for this project. I very well may oppose it. I just thought the comment comparing this to Avatar was ridiculous. I don't recall seeing the Na'vi society revolving around unobtanium usage themselves, although maybe the 3D caused me to imagine some of the things I saw.

The only reason Venoco wants to drill is because doing so is profitable, as oil is in high demand including, yes, Santa Barbara County, I'm sure. The key is to do so with the smallest environmental impact, because spills like that of the Gulf Coast have far reaching damages. And even though what Venoco is doing does seem somewhat shady, the matter is still going to a public vote, so the people will still get a say in the issue.

Hopefully this clarifies my position and makes me seem a little more reasonable :)

Saying that what Venoco is attempting with measure J is "somewhat shady" is like saying you're somewhat pregnant.

Measure J needs to go down in flames!

rc251, I felt the Measure J comparison to the movie Avatar wasn't all that off. Although the Na'vi society didn't revolve around unobtanium usage, they sure embraced their natural surroundings and kept everything in balance. The corporation that was in charge of the mining of unobtanium would do whatever it took to dig that stuff up. Even if it meant of the destruction or desecration of the local environment and all of its inhabitants.

I just don't think that this is the work of an "evil corporation". The only reason they are out there trying to extract oil is that people like you, me, south coasters, and society demand that resource. As a society, we don't embrace our natural surroundings, and lack of care is especially evident in the south coast: Public transportation is not well supported, places like Hope Ranch restrict beach access to the elite, celebrities from Montecito fly out of SBA in their private petroleum powered jets, etc.

The people of the south coast should not be compared to the Na'vi. And despite how evil Venoco may be, this is still ultimately going to a public vote, and the people will be able to decide whether they want the project or not. The Na'vi didn't get that choice.

Venoco is actually not an evil corporation and has done much in the way of donations for Carpinteria. The problem that many of us have is the way they are going about this whole process. It is only going to a vote because Venoco didn't like the way the City was finding their EIR, it was not going well, so Venoco pulled the plug. They paid non-residents to solicit signatures, telling the real Carpinteria residents they were signing something about their electricity bill. The whole process that Venoco has taken to get this far is shady to say the least.
Many of us are far more concerned about the outcome of this whole thing, than perhaps the oil itself. If this passes it still needs to go through many loops, however Venoco will have a very different stronghold on the situation and the City. This sets a very dangerous precedent not only for Carpinteria, but the County and the entire Coast. Yes, we need oil, but we need it done the best way possible for everyone not just the ones that will really benefit, the Corporations and the Shareholders.
Please read the Initiative you will find more information there, then make your own decision. But we need your help Indy and readers to educate people on this, it is a very dangerous, scary situation.
www.carpinteria.ca.us (see Paredon Oil and Gas Development Initiative Information)

Thank you samdgreenleaf for shedding more light on the subject for us. The whole idea that a company would pay non-residents to solicit signatures, meanwhile telling the real Carpinteria residents they were signing something about their electricity bill is doing "whatever it takes to dig that stuff up" in my book.

To some folks, all corporations, like all developers are greedy and evil.

How much petroleum in them there surfboards, brah?

Well said JohnLocke - seriously though is this not IRONIC??? Surfers paddle out to protest "Big oil" on their surfboards made using petroleum products in their WETSUITS which are made mostly from "Big oil" products... good job guys! way to stick it to the man

Hey, single issue special interest people are rarely rational. If they were they'd have to compromise. I've always loved the irony of paddling out against oil.