SB NEEDS SOME TOUGH LOVE
I am generally proud to be a Californian and very proud to live in the great city of Santa Barbara. But the last few weeks I have felt anything but proud. Because, you see, I am witness to potentially one of the biggest blunders that we may ever make as a community. As The New York times recently reported ..
Santa Barbara County became a symbol of the national environmental movement’s passionate opposition to offshore oil drilling when an oil spill devastated its coastline in 1969. On Tuesday, it became a symbol of the changing national mood as its board of supervisors ... voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday to end the county’s opposition to offshore drilling ... Three weeks ago, the Public Policy Institute of California released a poll showing that 51 percent of Californians now approve of offshore drilling, a 10-point increase in a single year ...
This devastating bit of news got thinking about how our fear of terrorism has allowed us the sit back and watch our civil liberties slowly disappear. And now, it seems, our fear of high gas prices may result in me having to watch those ugly oil rigs reappear. You've probably heard this stuff a hundred times by now, but let me lay out once again why offshore drilling will do nothing to help gas prices:
- A decade for results: Even Bush himself is telling us that it may take more than a decade before we see any benefit from offshore drilling. Let me say that again: 10 YEARS!
- It's a land grab: More than half of the oil leases given to the oil companies have not been developed. So, why do they need our coasts? Let me say that again: OIL COMPANIES CAN DRILL ALL THEY WANT RIGHT NOW!
- The oil goes on the open market: Do you really believe that the oil off our coast will go right from the water into your gas tank? No, it will be sold on the open market. Let me say that again: YOUR OIL WILL GO TO CHINA!
- It will have almost no impact on gas prices: By some estimates, opening up offshore areas to oil exploration might cut the price of gas by 3 to 4 cents. Let me say that again: FOUR CENTS!
So, Santa Barbara, let me ask you ... Why are you willing to muck up MY COAST in MY COMMUNITY for absolutely no benefit to you and your family? Is your eagerness to do something about high gas prices blinding you to the cause of doing something right? If you really think this is a good deal, I have a bridge in San Francisco that I'm dying to sell you. And to Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who cast the deciding vote here, this oil discussion reminds me that your family's beer gives me gas.
Should Santa Barbarans be angry about high gas prices? Your damn right you should be! You should be angry that big oil has spent billions to prevent you from driving fuel efficient cars. You should be angry that automobile companies have not spent the last three decades working towards cars that run on alternative fuels. You should be angry that our world is heating up at an exponential rate. But most of all, you should be angry that the mind-bogglingly incompetent Bush administration has so easily convinced you that offshore drilling will help at the pump.
Yes, this is a sad time for me. And you can bet that ten years from now -- when gas prices are still high -- I'm going to stand by my ocean front property on upper State Street and yell over the sea of oil rigs that, "I TOLD YOU SO!"
Labels: offshore drilling, santa barbara
posted by Trekking Left @ 1:11 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Right on! Too many young people don't remember the Big Spill and are seemingly unconcerned about a possible recurrence. There is, however, no excuse for the supes who approved drilling off the coast. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Rant on, TL! We need your reasoned and articulate anger.
Some of us young people don't want offshore drilling, even if this is the first I've heard of "The Big Spill". Thanks for laying out all the pros (wait, are there *any*??) and cons on such a dumb recent decision.
Meanwhile, everyone should see the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" For reals, people -- it will make your blood boil.
Learn more about The Truth About… Gas Prices at http://www.thetruthabout.com
You can learn a lot more about the 1969 spill from the two 2005 UCSB Daily Nexus articles by Daniel Haier, links from the Wikipedia page about the spill:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill. After the initial 10-day blowout, oil continued to flow into the channel for a year!
This is highly ridiculous! I don't remember the spill, I was 8 at the time, didn't live in SB, but I can say I DO NOT WANT OFF SHORE DRILLING HERE, THERE OR ANYWHERE. It's scandalous that the board of not so super supervisors have voted, short-sightedly and self-interestedly, to bring MORE drilling? THIS is a rememdy to our current energy crisis?? They must be overcome with carbon monoxide poisoning from sucking on too many tail pipes! This decision reeks. Throw the bums out!
Amen
This is when Republicans show how far in bed they have gotten with Big Oil.
The oil industry has repeatedly claimed existing oil leases only to lock them up and refuse to explore or drill in most of them.
When Congress attempts to impose an expiration date on the leases -- drill and produce or they must be returned to the federal government so others might -- the oil industry has blocked the effort.
It has become obvious their real goal is to simply lock up the leases and constrict supply so as to continue to artificially inflate prices.
This has recurred many times during Republican Administrations. It is, in fact, how the former Chevron processing plant in Gaviota came into being. They knew at the time there was not enough commercially recoverable oil to justify such a project but they wanted into SB to prove a point. Then it got turned over to ever smaller and less capable companies. It has stood as a symbol for a generation.
We are in the midst of a massive Enron-type oil market manipulation. But it presents an excellent renewed opportunity to switch to sustainable domestic energy. It is in our national interest to do so as quickly as possible.
It is too bad Brooks showed his true colors on the matter. But it isn't surprising.
His Supervisorial seat is the swing seat and it is critical it be occupied by someone solidly opposed to more offshore oil drilling.
His replacement will be chosen in the next election. There is only one candidate who is squarely opposed to offhore oil drilling. Find out who it is and work for their election.
It seems we take one step foreward and three steps backward when it comes to preserving our natural reources. It is time to support those entities which are trying to replace this costly resource. Personally I am not surprisd with the vote but I am very disappointed with our supervisors short term memories and lack of vision wheb it comes to our natural resources.
"your family's beer gives me gas"
great line man! that was hilarious.
you clearly have your issues with offshore drilling... what is your stance on drilling in ANWR?
"you clearly have your issues with offshore drilling... what is your stance on drilling in ANWR?"
I don't know about my trusty sidekick (and I've also never been to alaska, so I don't know for sure what the scope of it would actually look like, as opposed to hating the derricks off our coastline), but...
I would entertain the idea of allowing drilling there IF it was a tradeoff for actually getting us completely off fossil fuels in, say, 10 or 20 years. Charge the oil companies for the leases, then put all of that into a solar/wind infrastructure, get the car companies to agree to strict increases in mileage and number of electric vehicles.
It might be worth it if it provided the leverage to make the oil and auto industries go along with changes that desperately need to happen.
What do you think?
I'm torn. I think we need to drill now even if it's just to appear like we are trying to get off the foreign oil. If the arab oil countries see that we are trying NOT to buy their goods they may make it cheaper for us to do so. On the other hand, I feel like initiating new sources of domestic oil prolongs our dependence on oil in general, when we really should be focusing on alternative energies.
As for the ANWR, I've never been concerned about the caribou. It's such a small area that they are proposing for the work that I really don't think it presents a major hazard to the wildlife or local environmental hierarchy.
Back to the offshore... does anybody have any information as to what drilling here will do for the seeps? I remember reading something about offshore drilling here relieving the pressure of the natural oil seeps that tar up our beaches. Is there anything to that?
Yeah, I was wondering that too, but this week's Indy says:
"Firestone and his fellow oil supporters contended that additional oil harvesting in the Santa Barbara Channel would actually help the environment by decreasing the natural oil seeps that have long plagued local waters and area beaches. Ironically, the UCSB research used to back up this claim — done by Dr. Bruce Luyendyk at the Coal Oil Point reserve beneath Platform Hondo — was effectively discredited by Luyendyk himself Tuesday when he testified that such conclusions drawn from his work were “unjustified and unwarranted extrapolations.”
classic NIMBY, now go fill up your tank and drive home.
And what's your suggestion, Eric? I work from home, so my daily commute is zero.
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