More Oil Lies: California

Cross posted at Praxxus

Another in the series (see also:  Alaska and Florida) of stories about enviro-rape disguised as energy security, this one courtesy of the LA Times.   It would seem that the US (de)Forest Service has approved oil exploration/development on 52,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest.

More on the flip side . . . .

All in all, the article itself is fairly balanced.  It counters the (de)Forest Service claims:

Forest Service oil and gas resource specialist Al Hess, who has been working on the Los Padres forest energy plan for 10 years, says that after thorough study, officials eliminated all significant environmental and recreational impacts.

"It would have no impact on wilderness, because that area is off-limits," Hess says. "Anywhere there was possible impact on threatened and endangered species was taken off the table."

with statements from local politicians and environmental groups quite nicely:

But potential threats to imperiled wildlife, mainly the California condor, have drawn the most opposition. The attorney general's appeal cites "risks to the viability" of the condor, and environmentalists aren't satisfied with some of the protective measures for the bird. Surface drilling would be allowed up to the boundary of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. The Los Padres forest is home to 44 of the remaining 100 wild condors. The Forest Service would require companies to locate wells at least a mile and a half from condor nest and roost sites, bury power lines, keep lids on liquid containers and pick up trash daily so condors don't eat it.

Wow!  A mile and a half!  I'm sure that won't bother the condors!  Just ask the mule deer in Wyoming what great neighbors those wells can be.  Good thing too that the Forest Service "requires" all those other safeguards, because now we know they will without a doubt be dutifully followed and strictly enforced.  Oh, except the enforcement won't be necessary, because all the "requirements" will be adhered to so stringently.

As usual, the Oil Whores try to obfuscate reality with vague definitions about the quantity of the oil they're after.  In this case, it's apparently an official categorization of "high oil and gas potential areas" in Los Padres.  Oooh!  High potential!  We can kiss that MidEast crude good-bye, right?  

Well, not so right.  Massive props to the LA Times, because they actually mention the existence of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and plainly state that the 17 million barrels of oil being discussed amount to less than a day of U.S. oil consumption.  As my two regular readers probably remember, 2004 EIA statistics put that daily consumption at 20.4 million barrels.  

Those two will also likely remember what I just now dubbed the "ANWR Assumption."  According to the EIA, the oil under ANWR won't be available until 2010, with peak production predicted by 2020 or 2030.  It's probably safe to use the ANWR Assumption here, so we can start getting excited now about that 20 hours of oil that will start becoming available in five years or so!  In your face Saudi Arabia!

•  Another un-sexy energy/environmental post

  When I wrote the first "Oil Lies" story about the Teshekpuk area in Alaska, I really didn't intend for it to become a series.  But these damn stories just keep popping up everywhere!  Next thing you know we'll hear a story about the "vast security implications" of 200,000 barrels of oil in the Everglades or something.

  snort

  by Praxxus on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 10:55:18 AM PDT

  •  heh

    strange how they tell us that oil is plentiful and peak oil is just silly, but go on to say that drilling these few million barreal is strategic...

    by Jerome a Paris on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:22:29 AM PDT

    •  Oh, it's strategic all right

      Except the real strategy is to squeeze as much money out of their current business model before they're drug kicking and screaming away from their precious hydrocarbons.

      I need to dig up some numbers and do a "Conservation" installment of this sadly growing series, to see how increasing gas mileage, for instance would compare to the 2+ years of oil they're managing to squeeze out of ANWR, Teshekput, LS181A, and Los Padres.

      Asshats.

      by Praxxus on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:30:01 AM PDT

•  Just what California needs for...

  ...brush fire season is more oil infrastructure to blow up and feed the flames.

  by wonkydonkey on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:07:25 AM PDT

•  Don't You Love America?

  Or Big Oil, either?! Those 17 million barrels have a net value of over a billion dollars at today's prices, jeez, what's the matter with you, can't you see this is all for the greater good?!

  by gwhayduke on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:29:08 AM PDT

  •  Yes. Yes it is.

    For sufficiently small definitions of "greater good."

    by Praxxus on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:42:18 AM PDT

•  On or about

  mid 2001, the Bureau of Land Manangement closed the doors to open searches of their records.  Genealogists used these records all the time.  Now the only way to have access to those records is with a FOIA request.

  Rest assured that drilling for oil to sell to other countries will not end with the refuges. There will be rigs set up in every available space but this country will reap no benefits from it.

  by nupstateny on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 11:54:28 AM PDT

•  Ive been dealing with this for months.

  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/27/13249/3095

  thanks for picking this up and running with it.

  by environmentalist on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 12:15:55 PM PDT

  •  Thanks.

    That was an excellent diary.  

    I hate Dick "Dick" Pombo.  What an asshat.  He never met a parcel of land he wasn't willing to divvy up and auction off.

    by Praxxus on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 12:27:12 PM PDT

•  Crude logic, indeed

  My, aren't you one cynical, sarcastic party pooper, playing the old common sense card when it comes to questioning the wisdom of the oil demigods that speak from on high?

  Don't stop these venomous diaries for a second, you glorious bastard!

  by fordcomm on Sat Oct 15, 2005 at 07:08:59 PM PDT