Angel Pacheco, News-Press Staff Writer

April 8, 2010

Two years ago, it was billed as an unprecedented deal that would eventually end drilling off the county coast. But after denial by the State Lands Commission on the grounds that it was unenforceable and improperly confidential, environmental groups headed back to the drawing board and on Wednesday they unveiled a revised deal they hope will pass regulatory muster.

The Environmental Defense Center, Get Oil Out! and the Plains Exploration & Production Company posted the full deal online that would require the production company to cease local operation in 14 years in exchange for expanded drilling rights in the Tranquillon Ridge area near Platform Irene off Vandenberg Air Force Base. The 2010 deal makes revisions that allow the state, including the lands commission, to enforce the agreement.

“We don’t think that our initial agreement had any deficiencies (and) that it was fully enforceable, but realizing that we were going to have to go the State Lands Commission, we felt that it was really important to address those concerns,” EDC Chief Counsel Linda Krop told the News-Press at a press conference at Shoreline Park. “We’ve worked really hard to address all of the concerns that were raised and we feel that we’ve done that.”

The newly-unveiled revisions also require that PXP surrender its federal oil leases, thus eliminating its ability to continue operating its four platforms after the stop dates. This provision also eliminates the possibility that the federal government will force PXP to continue production.

There are currently 20 oil platforms operating off the coast with no termination dates; but under the deal, Platform Irene would cease operations in 14 years, and three platforms at the nearby Point Arguello field would be shut down in nine years.

“Left alone, these platforms pose the biggest threat for new drilling in federal waters off our coast because under current law they can be here forever,” said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara. “We already hear calls for endless drilling — calls that only get louder every time gas prices rise despite the fact that drilling off Santa Barbara would have no effect on gas prices.”

Ms. Capps has heard criticism that the agreement sends a message to Washington that the community isn’t serious about ending drilling, but she said nothing is further from the truth.

“This plan sends only one message, and it sends it loud and clear: We are willing to go the extra mile to end drilling along the coast,” she said.

And even if PXP violated any end-dates, it would be forced to give up its profits.

Although the proposal received additional support from Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal’s office, The Trust for Public Land and the Citizens Planning Commission, the additions weren’t enough to change the mind of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.

“They rewrote the document and made it look prettier, but the same problems still exist,” he told the News-Press in a phone interview.

The agreement would make Santa Barbara the only location on the West Coast that allows for new drilling in state waters, he said. It would additionally require that the EDC continue to act as a spokesman for PXP in front of the State Lands Commission, the Coastal Commission and other regulatory bodies, and EDC would receive payment from PXP for its services.

PXP’s next step is to take the agreement back to the State Lands Commission. And with Sen. Abel Maldonado awaiting a confirmation vote for lieutenant governor, which would get him a seat on the commission, Mr. Nava said, “We need to know Maldonado’s position now.”

In February, Sen. Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, said he was against the original plan.

Although Mr. Nava said he was glad that the EDC took his advice in making the document available to the public, the fact that EDC wrote a new agreement is proof to him that the original was flawed and a mistake.

GOO! President Abe Powell said the agreement the groups have returned with has passed through the refining flames of Sacramento and the hot winds of political debate and is back stronger than ever.
However, he said the agreement is still firmly grounded on its original foundation, including requirements for PXP to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from Tranquillon through carbon offsets.
The oil company must also donate $1.5 million to further greenhouse gas emission reductions in the county.

PXP must additionally remove onshore facilities and close hundreds of onshore oil wells in 14 years. The cleared lands would be among a gift totaling about 39,000 acres of coastal property to the Trust for Public Land, and it would be protected as open space.

About 56 of those acres include the Gaviota processing plant viewable from Highway 101, and Ms. Krop said PXP holds 76 percent of the interest in the facility. PXP has pledged to put its support behind donating the property to the trust once the facility is decommissioned. While it is not 100 percent certain that the trust will one day hold the deed, regardless of what happens, the property would remain an open, protected space, Ms. Krop said.

In a statement, Southern California trust director Debra Geiler said,”We have always believed that this agreement is an excellent way to protect lands that currently support offshore oil and gas development. We have worked for many years to protect the landscape around Santa Barbara and this agreement is a big step toward doing that.”

The environmental groups and PXP introduced the updated plan the week after President Obama decided to exclude California from a federal drilling leasing plan.

In exchange for its sacrifices, PXP would be able to slant drill about 30 new shafts from Platform Irene in federal waters to Tranquillon Ridge, a formation in state waters.