By Katie Davis
Lompoc Launch Looms
The Strauss Wind project near Lompoc is nearly ready to launch, providing enough renewable energy for 45,000 homes, while creating green collar jobs in north Santa Barbara County. We need to rapidly deploy renewable energy projects like this to achieve the County and State’s ambitious climate goals.
The project faced delays due to heavy rain and erosion earlier this year but is finally nearing completion. The project includes a state-of-the-art bird detection system IdentiFlight that is designed to shut down turbines when birds are detected in the area. Even so, BayWa, the developer, needs to get a “take permit” from Fish and Wildlife in case a Golden Eagle is killed so they can pay into a fund to save other Golden Eagles.
A technicality around procuring this permit threatened to delay the project further as the conditions imposed by the County required a letter from Fish and Wildlife saying that a permit was coming. It turns out Fish and Wildlife will issue no such letter, even though they always issue such permits. As the wait for the permit could be years, BayWa was back in front of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission on July 12 asking for the condition to be changed to permit applied for rather than permit promised. The Planning Commission granted the change, while complaining that BayWa should have applied for the permit earlier.
Once operating, the project will provide additional energy and important resiliency benefits for our grid, particularly during hot summer months when energy demand surges. BayWa CEO Gordon MacDougall says he is, “committed to making Strauss an exemplar of a great Californian wind project.”
Ventura Oil Suit Settled
After the precedent-setting Ventura County General Plan was adopted in 2020, the oil industry immediately filed multiple lawsuits challenging the public safety policies included.
For a few years, the County held strong in defense of these policies, with the support of legal intervention from Sierra Club, CFROG, and Voices In Solidarity Against Oil In Neighborhoods. A recent settlement agreement between Ventura County and the oil companies ends these lawsuits and waters down the oil regulations.
The strong oil regulations passed by the Board of Supervisors under the leadership of Steve Bennett and the late Carmen Ramirez have been watered down in several ways.
Loopholes allow the regulations to not be applied in existing oil fields with antiquated permits, meaning that drilling can still happen next to homes, schools and workplaces. The settlement requires "if feasible" to be added to the policies limiting venting and flaring gas, trucking oil, and using electric equipment.
In practice, this means these policies are meant to improve air quality and community safety will not be required. In short, the bullying by oil companies to overturn oversight has worked, though the General Plan rules are still better than nothing.
The settlement will be discussed at the Board of Supervisors meeting on September 12, providing an opportunity for the public to comment.
Exxon Drags On
Meanwhile, Sierra Club and partners are also intervening to defend Santa Barbara County from Exxon which is suing over the decision not to approve their plan to restart their offshore oil platforms, which were shut down since a 2015 oil spill and truck the oil over windy roads from Gaviota. They are still seeking ways to truck oil on our roads.
If that doesn’t work, Exxon has also put forward an even more “diabolical plan” (as described by SFGATE) which is to restart the corroded and damaged pipeline and then finance the sale of their operation to a new company, Sable, that will limit Exxon’s liability in the event of another spill.
On April 26, the SB County Planning Commission denied Exxon’s request to do work on the old pipeline that would lead to restart. Exxon appealed and it will go to the SB Board of Supervisors on August 22. Ask our Supervisors to deny Exxon’s project in an email: sbcob@countyofsb.org
End Dependence on Gas
In July around Independence Day, groups across California gathered to demand that Gov. Newsom plug leaking oil wells, stop approving fossil fuel projects, and end neighborhood drilling next to homes and schools.
In Santa Barbara there was a paddle-out to offshore oil wells. A wide variety of organizations demanded that we end dependence on fossil fuels. Photos of the event were taken on the beach and from kayaks in the water. I spoke on behalf of the Sierra Club and provided some cautionary tales of oil companies and the pollution they leave behind.
In Ventura “chalktivists” shared the health and climate dangers of oil drilling and celebrated what our neighborhoods could look like without pollution.
Join the statewide movement here: https://tinyurl.com/ResistOil
Sierra Club action link: https://tinyurl.com/NoToOilGas