Environmentalists Cite Santa Barbara Oil Spill in Fight Against New Offshore Drilling Plan

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, May 27 (Reuters) – Environmentalists urged California regulators on Wednesday to reject a proposed growth of the one offshore drilling operation nonetheless permitted in state waters alongside the Santa Barbara shoreline, seizing on public outrage over final week’s close by oil spill.

[contextly_sidebar id=”s99kNhDqfheMdph28XC4hvWwCgIjt5Mx”]Privately owned Venoco Inc is searching for permission to drill on 3,400 acres (1,400 hectares) of the ocean flooring inside a state-designated coastal sanctuary adjoining to the corporate’s present offshore lease web site. It stated the plan would enhance petroleum manufacturing by 6,400 barrels a day.

That extra capability, just like the crude petroleum already being pumped from Venoco’s 50-year-old Platform Holly, would in the end be added to grease provides carried by means of the pipeline that burst on May 19 about 20 miles (32 km) west of Santa Barbara.

The breach dumped as a lot as 2,400 barrels (101,000 gallons, or 382,000 liters) of crude onto a pristine stretch of shoreline and into the Pacific, leaving slicks that stretched over 9 miles (14 km) alongside the coast. Two state seashores have been closed indefinitely, together with fishing within the space.

The spill additionally prompted the California Lands Commission to postpone its first public listening to on Venoco’s offshore drilling proposal, initially slated for Tuesday, to June 24.

On Wednesday, the conservation group Center for Biological Diversity despatched a letter calling for the Lands Commission to disclaim Venoco’s utility to drill on tracts of the ocean flooring positioned off-limits to new power growth underneath a 1994 state legislation.

Venoco’s proposal cites an exception underneath the statute that enables for adjustment of an present offshore mineral lease to embody oil reserves disregarded of its unique boundaries.

But opponents stated the fee as a substitute ought to order decommissioning of Platform Holly, which was inbuilt 1965 and sends oil to shore by means of a subsea pipeline that’s itself 45 years previous.

Petroleum from Venoco’s rig in the end is added to refinery-bound provides that get pumped by means of the failed 28-year-old transmission line owned by Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline.

“It would be a grave mistake for the state to approve a project that will feed more crude into a pipeline system that just spewed thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific,” stated Miyoko Sakashita, the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program director.

Venoco, which operates principally in Southern California however is predicated in Denver, had no fast remark. (Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)