Santa Barbara County staff oppose ExxonMobil plan to transport oil along HWY 166
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Santa Barbara County planning staff released a report on Wednesday opposing the use of Highway 166 to transport oil to Kern County.
County staff said saying that use of that route would increase the likelihood of accidents and oil spills.
Phillips 66 also announced on Wednesday that it will close its Santa Maria Refinery and related pipelines by 2023, shutting down the other option for ExxonMobil to get its offshore oil to a refinery.
“We call on ExxonMobil to withdraw its risky oil project,” said Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center. “ExxonMobil’s proposal was already ill-conceived from an environmental and climate justice point of view, and now it is unsuitable in light of Phillips’ plans to convert its refinery to renewable fuels. There is even less reason now for ExxonMobil to put our coast and communities at risk.”
Exxon’s trucking plan called for up to 70 oil tanker trucks per day on coastal Highway 101 and Hwy 166. The trucks would transport oil 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission is scheduled to hold hearings on the project on Sept. 2 and Sept. 9 before deciding whether to recommend approval, but those hearings may be postponed by the new developments.
“This is great news for California communities, motorists and wildlife threatened by ExxonMobil’s dangerous oil trucking plan. Exxon should follow Phillips 66’s lead and end its dirty energy operations on California’s Central Coast,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “With the oil industry reeling, it’s time to end offshore drilling along this beautiful, bountiful coastline, not revive it.”
ExxonMobil’s platforms were shut down in 2015 after the Plains All American Pipeline ruptured and spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil along the California coast. The company proposed to restart its platforms, load its offshore oil onto tanker trucks at its Las Flores Canyon processing facility, and truck up to 470,400 gallons of oil per day to facilities in Kern County and Santa Maria.
The coalition opposing ExxonMobil’s trucking plan includes Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, 350 Santa Barbara, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Center, UCSB Environmental Justice Alliance, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board, Food and Water Action, GOO!, SBCAN, Sierra Club’s Los Padres Chapter, UCSB Academic Senator Esmeralda Quintero-Cubillan, Surfrider Foundation Santa Barbara County Chapter, Los Padres ForestWatch.
