A deal that was created by anti-oil groups and Plains Exploration and Production Oil & Gas company, based in Houston, has been defeated in California. The deal that was struck would have allowed the Plains Exploration and Production company to drill new wells in turn for the oil company closing all four of it’s offshore platforms in the next 13 years.
The deal was defeated 2-1 by the State Lands Commission in Santa Barbara, stating that it would indicate that California was welcoming offshore drilling in the state, when it is not. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi said that it would have been “a message heard very, very clearly by those who call for ‘drill, baby, drill.”
Had the deal not been defeated, it would have been the first time since 1969 that California would have approved oil drilling in state waters. In 1969, 40 years almost to the day the deal was denied, a detrimental oil spill occurred in Santa Barbara. The oil spill cause thousands of oceanic inhabitant deaths (including many seabirds) and damaged miles of beaches in the Santa Barbara area.
With these events in mind, environmental groups and local residents were very much in favor of the deal regardless. Proponents of the deal agree that by allowing the deal to go through, it could have led to the closing of 20 percent of coastal platforms and that would have a great step forward. An attorney for the Environmental Defense Center stated: “For the first time in history, the public and the state will be able to shut down existing oil production, …[and] Without this project, they’ll continue indefinitely — perhaps another 40 years.”