According to George
Orwell’s classic book 1984, Big
Brother tells us lies and convinces us they are truth. Today we might refer to
this as “spin.”
We in Santa Barbara County are spinning as a
result of the marriage between Big Oil and the Trump administration.
Let’s start with Aera Energy, for example. Co-owned by Exxon and Shell, Aera faced such vehement opposition to its plan to drill in Cat Canyon that it went back to the drawing board to satisfy the demands of John Parke, County Planning Commission chair. Now Aera’s back with a new proposal that it touts as environmentally friendly.
Aera’s publicity material states that the
company proposes to reduce the number of new oil wells from 296 to 185,
preserve 500 acres of the site for hiking and educational purposes, plant
“hundreds of trees,” and capture carbon by applying compost to the soil.
Sounds great, but this is not the whole
story. First, this reduced project would still generate nearly 2 million tons
of carbon pollution annually, more than our county’s greenhouse gas allotment.
Second, hiking through a massive industrial operation and using the site as a
classroom — for children! — while oil
tankers drive crude in and out, and heavy equipment and steam generators
pollute the air, are unhealthy and ill-advised, to state the obvious.
The proposed carbon farming would offset only
0.025 percent of the pollution produced. This doesn’t come close to compensating for the carbon loss from
the plants and trees that will be bulldozed to install the pumps.
This clever spin is known as “green-washing.”
Aera is telling us that its project is not harmful, but actually beneficial to
our environment.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has issued its own
Orwellian spin: A study on fracking that
found that it poses no significant environmental or health impacts.
Despite thousands of letters of opposition received by the Bureau of Land Management, the study was fast-tracked in order to adhere to an executive order that will ultimately allow oil companies to lease federally controlled mineral rights for oil development for as little as $2 an acre. Many of the taxpayer-owned lands targeted for drilling and fracking are near schools and on or near ecological reserves and drinking water reservoirs, as well as indigenous sacred sites.
Finally, ExxonMobil (yes, them again) is proposing to truck oil from Gaviota to refineries in Kern County until a pipeline can be rebuilt to replace the Plains All-American Pipeline that broke in 2015, causing 143,000 gallons to spill onto our beaches and our ocean. They argue that trucking oil is safe.
Think about it: Seventy oil-filled tankers a
day, 24/7, on the 101 and the windy and dangerous 166 between Santa Maria and
Kern, creating increased potential for accidents. During the Thomas Fire, when
hundreds of people needed to evacuate, a tanker truck accident shut down the
101. People were able to evacuate on surface roads, but if this were to happen
on the Gaviota Coast, there are no alternate routes.
A recent poll shows
that a majority of Americans would like to see oil
and natural gas drilling curtailed or maintained at current levels. We know
that there are effective and affordable alternative sources of energy to power
our cars, provide heat and light for our homes, and create the jobs we need now
and in the future.
Do you see the larger pattern here? Our
precious lands and ocean are being targeted from all sides in an Orwellian
scenario that brazenly presents misinformation as truth. If Santa Barbara County and California, where the
environmental movement began as a result of a disastrous oil spill and where we
have recently experienced numerous climate disasters, fall for these schemes,
there is little hope for the rest of the nation.
And don’t believe that Governor Gavin Newsom’s much-touted moratorium on the approval of new hydraulic fracturing in the state will be effective. As stated in this newspaper, many of the proposed oil projects, including those in Cat Canyon, are excluded due to technicalities regarding the intensity and type of steam injection. Many of us cheered when the moratorium was announced; but on a second look, the reach of the moratorium appears to be massively disappointing.
Dirty oil tells us they
are clean. Our regulators don’t regulate. Our protectors don’t protect. Will
we allow special interests that have only their own profit at heart to decide
the future of our land?
Let’s shout it out: We
don’t need their oil, their pollution, or their empty promises.
In March and in November,
ensure that our local Board of Supervisors, our members of Congress, and our
state and national officials will stand up on behalf of our health and our
environment. Use your vote and your voice.
