Oil drilling on Santa Barbara Coast

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is scheduled today to vote on a symbolic resolution to allow more offshore oil drilling along the county coastline. My colleague Maria La Ganga reports that the resolution is expected to be approved.

Offshore drilling is ultimately up to the state and federal government. But it is an interesting development to see the should-we-or-shouldn't-we-drill debate played out at a more local level. My colleague George Skelton last week opined in his column that we should drill, since California consumes far more oil than it produces and it's hypocritical to import all that oil from elsewhere.

The above map is from the federal Mineral Management Service and shows the 17 oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel (click on the map to see a larger version). There are 33 total oil platforms off California's coast, including four in the Santa Maria Basin and 12 in San Pedro Bay, according to the California State Lands Commission.

--Steve Hymon

Map: U.S. Mineral Management Service

Comments

[stan derrin]

"Our proposed new Oil drilling will reduce the price at the pump! see; www.strategicnine.com
PRIMARY BENEFITS FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY RESIDENTS
1. $2.50 GASOLINE for all registered Santa Barbara County residents and County vehicles from local oil production."

It is a delusional fantasy that santa barbara residents would pay a discount rate for gas.
Alaskans pay 4.50 a gallon of gas...yes, they pay more than anybody and yet they pump it out from under their feet.
You should know that oil is sold on the world markets at world prices.Oil is sold to the highest bidder not to the neediest or whatever sadsack.Oil companies are not charities.
The biggest and cheapest way we could find 10-50% cheaper oil is through conservation.If we reduced our consumption by 10,20,30,40% the price of oil would fall as much or more.CONSERVATION not exploration.Oil is finite its time to stop this chase of black gold and reduce our consumption and switch to alternatives.

[annette]

allen hujsak

nice way to talk about a fellow californian city. guess you are jealous you cant afford sB and have to settle for sd
lol

[peter sterling]

Our proposed new Oil drilling will reduce the price at the pump! see; www.strategicnine.com

PRIMARY BENEFITS FOR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY RESIDENTS
1. $2.50 GASOLINE for all registered Santa Barbara County residents and County vehicles from local oil production.
2. $2.50 GASOLINE for all registered hotel guests in Santa Barbara County.
3. County-wide Clean-Air, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) car conversions facilities.
4. $1.50 CNG for Santa Barbara and Coast residents for flexi-fuel vehicles.
5. Substantial Annual Grants to local environmental study groups and renewable energy programs.
6. Significant decrease in County-wide Air pollution from lower natural reservoir seepage.
7. Much lower C02 emissions for the County and State of California.
8. Significantly reduce potent greenhouse gas methane emissions from offshore gas seeps.
9. Much cleaner Santa Barbara beaches and oceans by reduction in beach tar balls.
10. Large new natural gas supplies from Bering Sea, landing via Santa Barbara County, to lower America’s C02 emissions from out of State coal-fired power plants, which will no longer be needed.
11. Increased local, State and National energy income streams, with monies all staying inside the County and America.
12. Provide Complete Santa Barbara energy self reliance and improve America’s energy security.
13. Significant high-paying local jobs boost.
14. Significant increased cash energy royalties to County of approximately $250-500 million p.a will improve the quality of life for all Santa Barbara County staff and local residents.
15. Special Proposed Community royalty payment from Bering Sea Gas imports landings to fund FREE County-Wide clinics and a new FREE County Hospital.
16. Lower-cost CNG for public transport-busses and vans, will enable disadvantaged and senior citizens to travel more freely.
17. Natural Gas for County home heating and cooking at a 30% discount to the prevailing rate.
18. Significant Increase in Local Property Values due to many of the above benefits.
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[Archie Bunker]

Jimmy Carter was right.

Make our cars more fuel efficient and invest in Public Transportation. Our economy cars should average 40mpg with the AC on. Our SUV's 25mpg in City driving

Thus we will reduce our oil comsuption, stop funding terrorism(because every time you fill up at the pump, you're funding terrorism) and have a better economy all in the same breath.

[Dan W.]

Offshore drilling won't reduce gas prices. That's the important thing here.

Everyone should read this column from Politifact, written by Robert Farley.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jun/19/MCCAINOIL/

Here's an excerpt:

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For starters, the lead time for oil exploration takes years. Even if offshore drilling areas opened up tomorrow, experts say it would take at least 10 years to realize any significant production. And even then, they say, the U.S. contribution to the overall global oil market would not be enough to make a significant dent in the price of gas.

“Drilling offshore to lower oil prices is like walking an extra 20 feet per day to lose weight,” said David Sandalow, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of Freedom from Oil. “It’s just not going to make much difference. It takes years to bring new oil wells online, said Mike Rodgers, a leading oil expert with PFC Energy in Washington. Companies need to drill exploratory wells, then discovery wells around the exploratory wells that show promise. Shipyards that build platforms, a two to three year endeavor, are already booked solid. It’s foolish to sell it as a short-term solution to high gas prices,” Rodgers said. “Opening off-shore drilling would have no impact whatsoever on gas prices today.”

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So don't believe McCain's "drill here, drill now" opportunistic rhetoric. There is no easy and simple solution to lower gas prices and a cheaper, automobile-based lifestyle.

[Mr. Bill]

The falsely repeated claim of how more coastal drilling will give us lower gas prices is cracking and people are wising up to the truth that this is all a GOP blame game.

Even if they sell our coast away where do these brainwashed oilies propose we go from there since we'll be in worse predicament than now. Its time to go green fast and shift away from the oil industry quickly.

The disastrous and proven potential of oil spills and regular discharge would devastate many of our coastal tourist and fishing economies. The few jobs and even more obscene profits for the oil industry are not worth the risk and will only further increase oil dependence.

It’s great to have this issue out in the open because as the public becomes more educated to the facts it exposes the oil industry and its supporters as the only ones who will benefit.

The energy plan from eight years of the GOP is in action, ties between oil industry, Bush and McCain are evidence of what this push for more oil drilling is about, more oil profit.

[Jimmy]

I see two problems with more drilling:
1. What we really need is massive investment from the federal/state governments to build wind farms along the coats and the plain states, solar farms in the south east, incentives for families who own less vehicles, and a huge increase in the amount of federal/state/local conservation land so we can stop the spread of sprawl. Instead, people like John McCain want to turn the ocean floor into swiss cheese to pump more oil into the market to bring prises down. Thats as stupid as trying to solve LA traffic by building more highways. Drilling for more oil will just continue our dependence on oil. Its not just foreign oil we should be trying to rid ourselves of, ITS OIL IN GENERAL! Drilling for more oil just means we will put off the investments I mentioned even longer. It should've happened in the 70's.
2. The second problem I have is that more offshore drilling won't even do what people claim, reduce prices. We can increase the supply all we want, but the Asian continent increases the global demand every day so we can't make progress. Focus on shifting away from oil for transportation/heating purposes altogether, not just "foreign oil".

[carbonates]

Where do people get the impression there are offshore leases that HAVE OIL that aren't being drilled? There are lots of leases never drilled, but most of them don't have anything to drill for.

The real change in technology that is not being considered here is the way that drilling has changed in the past 30 years. At this time it is more likely that a tanker offshore San Diego will have a spill than an offshore rig will cause a spill, so San Diego, you are not in the clear.

Recently a well was drilled offshore of Santa Barbara reached 5 miles from an existing platform. What this means is that it would be possible to reach all the state's waters from onshore. There would be no need to locate any new platforms offshore if only the state would allow leasing of the state waters. It can't be drilled if it can't be leased. By the way, that 5 mile long well has already produced half a million barrels of oil this year- not an insignificant amount, especially considering that the Federal government earned about 15% of that as a royalty (probably about $10 million).

[allen hujsak]

This is good news for those of us in San Diego. We can see that the folks in Santa Barbara aren't too bright.Off shore drilling is not going to a have any measurable positive impact. But we already know the negatives.

Dear Santa Barbara, can we ship our trash up to you and dump it on your beaches. We could use the extra land fill space, and since you really dont care anyway............

[Dan W.]

Everybody wants to believe there is a simple, easy solution to high gas prices. There isn't. Oil companies already have offshore drilling permits they aren't using because it isn't profitable.

"Drill here , drill now" won't make a difference when the cost of oil is determined by the global market and China and India continue to demand more energy.

Like it or not, America can no longer consume a widely disproportionate amount of the world's resources cheaply. Economics alone will cause major lifestyle changes.

But "drilling here, drilling now" sounds easy and viable because people want to believe it is viable, rather than have sane and sustainable planning and transportation policies.