Welcome to California Oil

CALIFORNIA OIL

California Oil is the new blog of SOS California, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation based in Santa Barbara, California. Our mission is to reduce the environmental impact of natural gas and oil seep pollution upon our ocean, our beaches and our air quality through education and awareness.

Our goal in starting this blog is twofold:

• To inform a broad audience about our local issues in Santa Barbara and offshore California – home to the second largest natural oil and gas seeps in the world; AND 

• To engage in the ongoing discussion of energy, economics, and the environment - a discussion that could lead us to our renewable future. 

IT’S SO UNUSUAL

Santa Barbara, California is an unusual place.  Those of us who live here have chosen this place because we know this.  First there is the unusual beauty – an astonishing confluence of mountains and sea, on an east-west trending coastline in a southern state. This unusual geology also contributes to another interesting undersea phenomenon – natural oil seeps. The Santa Barbara Channel has the second largest natural oil seeps in the world – second only to the Caspian Sea. 

Oil released in large quantities by accident is considered pollution.  What, then, about oil seeps?  They are natural. In fact, it is estimated that the volume of oil emitted each year is equivalent to that of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil blowout, and every four years it approximates the oil spilled in connection with the Exxon Valdez accident.  Are these seeps a source of pollution?

We at Stop Oil Seeps (SOS) California believe that seep pollution, while it occurs naturally, is still simply that -- pollution -- and that there is a solution that falls into that “unusual” category.

Researchers at the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) study the seep fields. During a conversation with SOS Co-Founder Lad Handelman, Dr. Bruce Luyendyk, professor and Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences, estimated the amount of oil being released from seeps located south of Point Conception as at least 10,000 gallons each day.

Now this is really unusual - Dr. Luyendyk confirmed that there is a significant decrease in seep release and pressure as a result of the ongoing oil extraction from the very formations that feed the pollution off Coal Oil Point.

(http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=412)

So the Santa Barbara Channel is leaking oil – the seeps have been called “an environmental disaster happening in slow motion.” Pretty unusual.

Another way this area is unusual - the Santa Barbara Channel is unusually rich in natural resources – resources that can be impacted by oil pollution. It is the only place in the world that serves as feeding and/or breeding grounds to 27 species of marine mammals. Recent studies have focused on the behavioral, thermal, and physiological impacts on marine mammals from contact, inhalation, and ingestion of oil.

Oil can be especially harmful to our resident and migrating seabirds—particularly diving birds that must get their nourishment by entering the water.  Oil destroys the insulation and waterproofing properties of their feathers - this can cause hypothermia. Also, birds that are unable to fly because of oil-matted feathers become easy prey. A review of recent data from the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) and the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (WCN) shows that, offshore between Ventura and San Luis Obispo, it’s likely there are approximately 600-800 birds per year (or more) that become oiled due to seeps.  An unknown number of those (perhaps 50-80%) die from hypothermia. 

Seeps pollute the air as well, by releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. To put it in perspective, seeps contribute much more hydrocarbon pollution than all Santa Barbara surface mobile vehicles e.g. cars, trucks, trains and planes (Air Pollution Control District Clean Air Inventory, 2007).

Here’s the irony - the same unusual geology that provides the structure for natural seeps also provides for an enviably more contained and safer approach to drilling into offshore formations – one that allows us to access most of these resources through bedrock, from land – such that the oil never needs to come in contact with the ocean’s surface.  The key is slant drilling – and the technology is here.

So, safe access to an energy source while reducing pollution – but could there be any other benefits from oil and gas production in the Santa Barbara Channel?

Here we go – that “unusual” word again.  The County of Santa Barbara is unusually well-positioned to reap "windfall" economic benefits from oil and gas production from State Tidelands waters alone.  Mark Schniepp, Ph.D., Director of the California Economic Forecast, states that the County could realize income from property taxes, corporate income tax, state sales tax, and royalties through oil and gas production within its boundaries. Peak Property Taxes could be $370 million/year, of which the County General Fund gets 23 percent, or $85 [million]. State Royalties could be $23 billion over 40 years, of which Santa Barbara County could get $4.6 billion or $230 - $240 million per year. Perhaps most unusual of all is that not even a single one of offshore drilling's opposition army has challenged any of Dr. Schneipp's analysis or projections. Could it be because his work is unchallengeable?

California and County revenues from production outside State waters, from federal waters, e.g. OCS, the Outer Continental Shelf, might be huger. Negotiations have been underway in Washington, DC which, if approved, would result in California receiving a 37.5% share of OCS revenues. California could see billions from its share of revenues from the OCS. No longer would Sacramento need to continue cutting back the traditional subsidizing of essential services in Santa Barbara County - and all the other counties across the state suffering from State cutbacks.

Representative Lois Capps, at the recent Gulf Oil II presentation in Santa Barbara, stated that, “Oil is too precious to waste.” SOS agrees, and takes this concept one step farther.  Our GOAL is to alert the public to the magnitude of natural seep pollution in the Santa Barbara Channel, and to the availability of an invaluable resource to fund environmental cleanup and develop alternative energy sources. It is through collaboration with an informed public that Santa Barbara can build the bridge to a sustainable future.

Unusual, yes – say yes to oil and gas production offshore California in areas near Santa Barbara as a way to improve the environment and fund alternative, renewable energy sources.

Stay tuned to this blog, and you will hear more about our unusual position. And get the chance to tell us what you think.

Let’s all start the discussion right here:  ENERGY... ECONOMICS... ENVIRONMENT...

WHAT DO YOU THINK???