Comments on: Drill here, drill now

By: Politica_Battles

Politica_Battles — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:58:29 +0000

A Real Chance : 3/1/2010

Anyone who still believes the PXP/GOO/CPA/EDC deal is unenforceable and somehow helps oil companies has their head in the sand. Let’s hope Nava and Jordan open their eyes and help end offshore oil drilling.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/mar/01/pxp-and-edc-grand-plan/

Under current law, oil companies have the right to drill without any end dates. Ineffective groups like Wild Heritage have kept long-term offshore oil drilling alive and well but the tide a finally appears to be turning as more legislatures realize the uniqueness of this deal to end off-shore oil drilling. The fears that this deal will create new drilling elsewhere are being put to rest. Also big oil companies like BP and Chevron are attempting to kill this deal in Sacramento. No surprise.

By: Harvey Cohon

Harvey Cohon — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:00:52 +0000

In Ohio and West Virginia the land owners get 12.5 percent of the gross of any well on their property. California, we, would get less than 4 percent. The biggest problem one has when drilling is to get rid of the brine fouled millions of gallons of water used in fracking. Pennsylvania requires it to be cleaned at a cost of $6.00 a barrel. Ohio lets it be put in underground caverns. I have never heard of what is done with the brackish water from the platforms. Maybe I don’t want to hear.
By the way, any barrel of oil (43 gallons) contains 19 gallons of land tranportation fuel.
This is from a fear-mongering environmentalist extremist.

By: StevefromSacto

StevefromSacto — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:45:45 +0000

“Balance the budget with oil revenues? What an idea. How about approving an oil severence tax in California? Seems to work fine in all the other oil producing states (AK, TX, FL, LA) but here.”

Jack, you don’t understand do you? The goal of the Rabid Right is not to balance the budget or bring about energy independence. It is to “shrink the size of government so we can drown it in the bathtub.”

That’s why the Right refuses to support anything that will provide the state with new sources of revenue.

By: Jack Eidt

Jack Eidt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:58:18 +0000

Energy independence is a meme that will never be achieved, most certainly from drilling offshore in the California Coastal Sanctuary. For 2009, 13.3 million barrels of oil were pumped from the 27 leases under operations in the Santa Barbara Channel; the United States consumes 20.7 million barrels of oil per day. Drilling here will not affect energy independence, only pay debt service to our fossil fuel addiction. We need to invest TODAY in alternatives to this finite resource that creates significant risk to coastal economies and ecosystems, then pollutes the skies and fouls the climate.

To claim that offshore drilling will balance our budget is also far off the mark. The tranquillon Ridge project will add $100 million to the books this year and $119 million next year — enough to finance state parks. Does anyone get the cnical political ploy, holding state parks hostage to offshore drilling?

Balance the budget with oil revenues? What an idea. How about approving an oil severence tax in California? Seems to work fine in all the other oil producing states (AK, TX, FL, LA) but here.

This article is also sadly misinformed about the risk of oil spills. In the short term, drilling 30 new slant wells will create significant amounts of toxic drilling muds, eroding the sea beds, and damaging fisheries. In the long-term, our coast will face the risk of blowouts and spills that happen regularly — in fact, last year there was one right around the 40th anniversary of the original SB Channel tragedy. And what about the high-technology Montara Field spill off West Australia that spewed thousands of barrels of oil per day into the pristine South Timor Sea for almost three months? Had that spill happened off Santa Barbara their economy would be ruined. Would the money offered to the state pay for that clean-up? And the spills off the Louisiana Coast after Katrina were significant and damaging to aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and tourism, but maybe the oil industry left out that detail in their fact sheets published here.

The PXP-EDC deal for Tranquillon Ridge is not enforceable by the state and will not end offshore drilling, only encourage it everywhere, as this author so clearly cheerleads. Our oil reserves should be kept as just that — reserved. They will not be drained by the Interior Deptartment as is claimed. The drainage taken up by Platform Irene is not significant. Not even the lands offered as mitigation are clearly going to be transferred. As a member of the over 100 groups that oppose this deal, we demand renewable energy proposals to solve our fossil fuel addiction and coming climate calamity. And an oil severence tax o solve our budget crisis.

Jack Eidt
Wild Heritage Planners