Just thirteen months after the massive Refugio Oil Spill fouled the pristine waters off the Santa Barbara Coast, a leak in an oil pipeline in Hall Canyon in Ventura County was reported at 530 a.m. today. As many as 29,400 gallons of crude oil has been spilled, according to the latest reports.
Fortunately, Ventura County Firefighters have stopped the oil from flowing towards the ocean, according to Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Mike Lindbery.
“The forward oil flow progress has been stopped,” said Lindbery. “There is no environmental threat to ocean and no evacuations in the area.”
The pipeline responsible for the spill is owned and operated by Crimson Pipeline, the owner of over 1,000 miles of pipelines in California, including Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, and Kern County. Crimson has shut off the pump, according to the Sierra Club.
Citizens For Responsible Oil & Gas (CFROG.org) reported the spill went about a half-mile down Hall Canyon in the barranca and may involve 29,400 gallons of AERA energy crude oil from the Crimson Pipeline. “Pipelines in Ventura County are not up to date," the group noted.
In a statement, Director of Sierra Club California Kathryn Phillips responded, “From Plains All American’s spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, to Shell’s spill in the San Joaquin Valley, to today’s in Ventura, it’s the unacceptable state of reality that oil spills have become the norm here in California.”
“Sierra Club praises the immediate action by Ventura’s first responders, but as we all know too well, there is no way to clean up all the destruction caused by crude oil spills,” she stated.
“Big Oil cannot be permitted to continue to act in such a reckless manner. Our Legislature, Governor Brown, and Congress must act swiftly to put our environment and our public health ahead of corporate polluters’ profits,” Phillips concluded.
Food and Water Watch also responded to the spill in a tweet: “A year after Santa Barbara spill, a Ventura Co. pipe leaks fracked oil. It’s time for 100% renewables.”
“This major spill is another grim example of why we must get pipelines and oil drilling out of California’s vulnerable coastal environment,” Center for Biological Diversity attorney Kristen Monsell said. “The spill’s already causing environmental damage. We’ve got to stop thinking about these oil spills as accidents and start regarding them as completely predictable ecological tragedies that we can prevent with strong action.”
Oil spill is no surprise under captured regulatory apparatus
The latest oil spill is no surprise in a state that prides itself on being a “green leader,” but is in fact the third largest oil producer in the country. The oil industry is the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in California — and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) in the largest and most powerful lobbying organization. Jerry Brown, who styles himself as a “green governor” and “climate leader,” has in fact received millions of dollars in contributions from Big Oil.
The oil industry, including WSPA, Chevron, Phillips 66, AERA Energy, Exxon and Shell, has spent more than $25 million so far in the 2015-16 legislative session. WSPA has spent $12.8 million so far in the session, making them, as usual, the top California lobbying spenders of the session.
In a huge conflict of interest that exemplifies how thoroughly Big Oil has captured the regulatory apparatus in California, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the South Coast Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force that created the so-called “marine protected areas” that went into effect in Southern California waters on January 1, 2012. She also served on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces for the North Coast, North Central Coast and Central Coast. (www.dfg.ca.gov/...)
After hearing from dozens of speakers at task force meeting on November 11, 2009, Reheis-Boyd and the other panel members selected a controversial plan that would close fishing and gathering in many areas, including waters off Laguna Beach and Point Dume, but do nothing to stop pollution, fracking, oil drilling, military testing or other insults to the ocean in Southern California waters.
"We're not going to make everyone happy, but this has to be done," panel Chairwoman Catherine Reheis-Boyd told the LA Times in an interview before the vote. "It's agony to weigh the environmental goals against people's livelihoods, especially here in Southern California, where the urban/ocean interface is greater than anywhere else in the nation."
"It's not perfect, but it's something we hope we can live with," said Reheis-Boyd, according to Sign on San Diego the same day.
Now not only are we forced to "live with" these faux "marine protected areas," but we are forced to "live with" the increasingly prominent role that Reheis-Boyd and the oil industry plays in California politics. Reheis-Boyd's rise to power and prominence in California politics was helped tremendously by the greenwashing of her position on the task forces by Brown and Schwarzenegger administration officials and MLPA Initiative advocates, who continually gushed that the corrupt process was "open, transparent and inclusive."
State officials and MLPA Initiative advocates have continually praised these faux “marine protected areas” as “hope spots,” “Yosemites of the Sea,” and “underwater parks,” when they are anything but. Let’s be clear: the “marine protected areas” created under Reheis-Boyd’s helm fail to protect the ocean from fracking, acidizing, other offshore oil drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.
While Reheis-Boyd served on the task forces to "protect" the ocean, the same oil industry that the "marine guardian" represents was conducting environmentally destructive fracking operations off the Southern California coast. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and media investigations by Associated Press and truthout.org in 2013 reveal that the ocean has been fracked at least 203 times in the past 20 years, including the period from 2004 to 2012 that Reheis-Boyd served as a "marine guardian.”
Federal regulators give OK to resumption of offshore fracking
Besides exerting enormous influence over state regulators, WSPA and Big Oil also wield enormous power over federal regulators. Claiming that fracking poses “no significant impact” to the environment, Obama administration officials on May 27 finalized their plans to allow oil companies to resume offshore fracking and acidizing in California’s Santa Barbara Channel after a moratorium on fracking was temporarily imposed as the result of a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit. (theecoreport.com/...)
As expected, Reheis-Boyd applauded the Environmental Assessment (EA) report by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement that ended the moratorium on offshore hydraulic fracturing in California:
“Today’s final report continues to reaffirm the sound science behind our safe energy production practices,” Reheis Boyd said in a statement on May 27. “Offshore producers in California will continue to adhere to the strictest safety and operational standards in the world while delivering affordable and reliable energy to U.S. consumers.” (www.wspa.org/... )
WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in five major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: and (5) working in collaboration with media. For my in-depth investigation on the five ways WSPA and Big Oil have captured California politics, go to: www.dailykos.com/...