Santa Barbara to comment on oil transportation hearings ahead
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The City of Santa Barbara will take a position on an oil tanker transportation plan for the Gaviota coastline.
The vote is set for Tuesday at City Hall as part of the weekly council session.
The public and area governments have been asked to submit a position on the project by Exxon/Mobil.
The oil giant has been trying to restart off shore oil platforms and move the product by trucks since the Plains All-American oil disaster in 2018.
That broken pipeline has not been repaired and no other oil transportation plan is in place.
The hearing in front of Santa Barbara County Planners takes place next month.
The plan involves truck traffic along the Gaviota coast to facilities in Santa Maria and Kern County.
Environmentalists say a tanker accident could be devastating to a coastal drainage or creek. Tourism officials say a shut down of the freeway or regional impacts from a tanker spill could lead to a loss of visitors to area hotels and restaurants.
The Plains All-American pipeline rupture in 2015 was a deadly mishap once the onshore leak made it to the ocean. Marine mammals and shorebirds either died immediately or were part of a massive rescue operation.
The impacts of the oil in the form or tar balls was seen many miles away down to the Los Angeles County coastline.
In 2018 the Houston-based company was found guilty of criminal charges for its role in the pipeline spill, damage to coastal waters and deaths to animal life in the environmentally sensitive area, that also has large oil reserves.
Watch tonight on KEYT NewsChannel 3, KCOY NewsChannel 12 , and Fox 11 news.
(More information, video and pictures will be added here later today.)
For more information go to: Santa Barbara County Energy projects
