By Katie Davis
Chapter Chair
A summary of our latest efforts in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties to expand clean energy and phase out dirty fuels.
Inauguration Action
Attention shifted to the federal government as President Biden started out of the gate with quick climate and environmental action.
On Day One, President Biden rejoined the global Paris Climate Agreement, restored national monuments such as Bears Ears, stopped oil leasing in the Arctic Refuge; revoked permits for the Keystone XL pipeline; and ordered review and revision of a range of Trump era regulations, policies and fossil fuel giveaways. These included improving fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and buildings, reducing methane emissions, and ensuring the costs of climate change are factored into government actions. These actions do much to restore science, due process, and international credibility. Hurrah.
Bipartisan Wins
That said, not everything done under Trump needs to be undone. The COVID relief and economic stimulus bill passed and signed in December included solar and wind tax credit extensions and the first major energy research and development legislation in a decade. It will support technology improvements in things like renewable energy, storage, grid modernization, efficiency, and storage.
Perhaps least sexy but most consequential, the bill phases out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a key refrigerant in our home and industrial air conditioners that is a potent greenhouse gas. Scientists estimate that global implementation of a HFC phase out could reduce global warming by 0.5 degrees Celsius (nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit) by decade’s end. That’s big. Bipartisan stuff can happen. It just doesn’t make big splashy news.
Beautiful Bluffs Back
More good news on the oil well clean-up front as California State Lands just announced they have has plugged and abandoned all 50 wells on Rincon Island and all 24 state onshore production wells. “An incredible accomplishment,” according to Lieutenant Governor and State Lands Commission Chair Eleni Kounalakis.
Summerland is also getting its old leaky wells cleaned up. “Exciting news” from Heal the Ocean that the State Lands Commission will cap two more wells on Summerland Beach, during the last half of 2021! “Better yet, there might be enough money left over in this funding cycle to tackle oil problems at Haskell’s Beach near Bacara,” HTO said.
The oil from the large tank visible from the Carpinteria bluffs is being removed as part of the on-going Venoco clean up and decommissioning. Similarly, in Goleta, leftover contaminants from Venoco’s former Ellwood Marine Terminal tanks and pipelines are also being removed. UCSB has taken the lead to ensure the facility is cleaned up as the tanks are on university property.
Interestingly, it turns out that cleaning up old oil wells is important for the climate. A recent study by McGill University finds that methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells in Canada and the US have been greatly underestimated and are the 10th and 11th largest sources of anthropogenic methane emission in the US and Canada, respectively. Judging by the methane plumes captured by a NASA plane flying over oil fields in our region, we have more work to do here.
Spill Threat Watch
In Santa Barbara we’re still waiting for Exxon to come back with their plans for restarting drilling off the Gaviota coast that’s been shut down since the 2015 Refugio oil spill, along with their highly polluting processing plant.
The question it’s working on is where to send trucks full of oil now that the Santa Maria pump station is slated for closure. We also hear that felonious Plains Pipeline still hopes to build an oil pipeline across sensitive rivers, parks and public lands. We expect to know more about these projects in late spring.
The good news is that the Trump plan to offer new leases in the Pacific never was finalized, and Congressman Salud Carbajal re-introduced the CA Clean Coast Act on Jan. 25 in hopes to establish a moratorium on new oil leases off our coast. Here’s hoping the next leasing plan can focus on offshore wind instead of oil.
Legal Threat
Meanwhile, in Ventura County oil companies spent millions on petitions, gathering enough signatures to force a vote on whether to keep ordinances requiring environmental review of new oil projects. That needed oversight will now have be suspended until the June 2022 election. Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter signed onto a letter documenting the lies told by signature gatherers, which merit investigation.
In addition, seven lawsuits have been filed against the Ventura County General Plan oil regulations designed to protect people by setting a 1500-foot health and safety buffer between homes and drilling rigs. This pattern of scorched earth litigation by fossil fuel interests is aimed at punishing local CA governments for taking climate action or doing their job to protect people’s health and is an attempt to scare other CA governments from taking similar action.
These oil companies are a public health menace and a drain on our public coffers. Trying to hold on to our oily past as we transition to cleaner energy is also a bad bet. Exxon’s stock has fallen so far it got booted off the Dow Jones last year.
Clean Energy Advances
Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) rolled out in north Santa Barbara County in January, providing cost competition and cleaner energy goals than PG&E. 3CE hopes to provide 100% renewable energy to its customers by 2030 and to reinvest its profits in local clean energy solutions. 3CE will roll out in Goleta, Carpinteria and unincorporated Santa Barbara County served by SCE in October 2021.
The City of Santa Barbara will be offering its own community choice energy program. The Santa Barbara city council also voted unanimously in January in favor of implementing an all-electric building code.
Ventura County has been served by the Clean Power Alliance since February 2019. It is a community choice energy program like 3CE.