The second largest offshore oil province in the U.S. lies relatively close to the beaches of southern California but in many ways is the least accessible.
Over the years, local opponents have been very successful in blocking oil leasing and development on federal offshore tracts.
The Minerals Management Service, the federal leasing agency, has adopted a cooperative approach in the hope that reason and compromise will enable some drilling. So far, that dream has produced few results.
COOGER STUDY
MMS' most promising initiative is the California Offshore Oil and Gas Energy Resources (Cooger) study.
Cooger has brought industry together with local, state, and federal officials to analyze development options for state and federal waters in the Santa Barbara Channel and for Santa Maria basin reserves off San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
More than 80 leases remain undeveloped in those areas, and the oil industry thinks a billion barrels of oil is recoverable despite environmental (particularly air quality) problems and strong public resistance.
MMS underscored its cooperative approach by recently holding the fall meeting of its Outer Continental Shelf policy advisory committee in Santa Barbara.
Director Cynthia Quarterman told the meeting MMS wants to identify environmental problems early in the process, avoid litigation, and shun "decisions made behind closed doors that are doomed to failure."
Although industry and environmental representatives spoke of cooperation at the meeting, their statements also showed that they are still far apart on many issues.
SANTA BARBARA INITIATIVE
About the time of the MMS meeting, a coalition of 20 Santa Barbara environmental groups said it had more than enough signatures to place an initiative on the ballot that would allow the public to veto new oil projects in Santa Barbara County.
The initiative exempts projects in northern Santa Barbara County, pipelines, and developments that use existing oil and gas processing sites.
It is aimed at Mobil's Clearview development and a Molino Energy Co. gas recovery project. Both would use extended reach drilling from onshore sites to tap offshore reserves.
A similar ballot initiative in San Luis Obispo County blocked Shell's San Miguel project in 1987.
Linda Krop of the Santa Barbara Environmental Defense Center said, "We're not really happy with our experience with offshore oil and gas (because) we're basically out of the loop."
Molino Pres. John Stahl called the action "a thinly concealed attempt at an outright ban on oil and gas development."
A Mobil representative said, "We have a great project that we think will pass a public vote."
The Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors is expected to place the issue on the March primary election ballot.
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