Q. Who are the real environmentalists?
A. Not Santa Barbara County’s three “liberal” Democrats.
This past week, the SB County Board of Supervisors, on a 3-2 vote, with Nelson and Lavagnino opposing, voted to proceed with banning all future oil development in Santa Barbara County.
The vote wasn’t shocking. In past hearings, Roy Lee, Laura Capps, and Joan Hartmann have made it clear that they could care less about the jobs that will be lost. (Interesting because these are the three liberal supervisors that claim they care about minorities and environmental justice, and yet 80% of the jobs in North County in the oil industry are held by Hispanics who will end up unemployed under this policy direction.)
They could care less about the fact that the county, which has significant financial problems, could receive an additional 20-30 million dollars in property taxes if oil projects proposed in North County could go forward.
They could care less that the county – once these policies are implemented – faces hundreds of millions of dollars in financial exposure in U.S. Constitution 5th Amendment Taking Claims. But then, why should they care?
The damage awards don’t have to be paid out of their pockets.
But here is why they should care: if they are real environmentalists who truly believe in their cause of reducing the effects of Climate Change, their policy makes no sense at all under strict scrutiny. On its face, it sounds great to say ban oil, that oil is bad, that it creates a huge carbon footprint, etc., etc., etc.
Especially nice sound bites when running for re-election.
But here is their flaw. California, through various state, county, and city, anti-oil policies, has done a great job shutting down the CA oil industry. Sounds good so far for you environmentalists. But here is where living in the glass chateau comes tumbling to the ground.
California Now Imports 62% of its Oil from Foreign Countries
None of the environmental leaders from the governor on down are attempting to do anything to stop oil importation. They do nothing because they know that without the oil, the CA economy would collapse overnight. So our so-called ‘environmental’ leaders have given us one choice: foreign oil.
But here are the facts about foreign oil. Most of the the countries where the oil comes from, such as Iraq – where we get 20% of our oil –have very little or no environmental, labor, or occupational safety, laws or protections. Iraq doesn’t even have air quality emission standards. And then there are places like Brazil – where we get 19% of our oil – where they cut down the rainforests to get to their oil. And 62% of that oil arrives in the state via oil tankers vs. California oil, which is primarily transported by pipeline.
It is estimated that the carbon footprint for receiving this foreign oil is 20-30 times greater than the carbon footprint for California oil.
It is also estimated that if CA unleashed all its energy potential, we could cut the import percentage from 62% (which will continue to grow as policies such as those adopted by the SB County Board of Supervisors yesterday are implemented) to under 10%.
So it’s time to call these so-called environmental politicians out for what they are. Every time a board of supervisors, a city council, or the state legislature adopts an anti-CA oil policy, that is a de facto policy of supporting the importation of foreign oil. There is no way around that fact. In this debate, you are either for foreign oil or for CA oil being used to run this state. There is no in-between. So, given the environmental facts about foreign oil, the real environmentalists are those of us who are advocating for CA oil, not the Roy Lees, Laura Capps, or Joan Hartmanns of this world.
With this in mind, I strongly urge you to attend our next Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Advocacy Center dinner on Thursday, October 1st. Professors Michael Mische (USC) and Rector (UC Berkeley), the two leading academics in CA on the issue of the environmental and economic impacts of foreign oil vs. CA oil, will be our speakers. For information or tickets, click here.
I leave you with this. In 1986, Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, left the organization, calling it hypocritical for its lack of support for nuclear energy (keep in mind nuclear energy has a 0 carbon footprint). He asked, “How can you support a group that is not true to its cause?” It’s time for those who are true environmentalists to get the facts and call out and oppose all of your co-called “leaders” who, in the name of the environment, support a policy of importing oil from foreign countries rather than our own blessed land.
Or perhaps I should leave you with a page from Shakespeare you may be familiar with: “To Thine Own Self Be True!”
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Mike Stoker: Environment, Energy & Agriculture Attorney (ret.), former Southwest Administrator US EPA; Former member of Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, and currently President & CEO Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Advocacy Center.
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Unfortunately the delusional mental break from reality in California runs deep. People here actually believe that oil and gas is bad and that they can live without it.
Actually oil and gas is the best thing to ever happen to mankind, it's cleaner than any energy source ever known, and the gift that keeps on giving regardless of pop culture virtue signaling nonsense...and no, cupcakes, without it you would all be dead in a matter of weeks if not days.
What this means is any effort to take us away from oil and gas is suicidal by definition.
For now, California and Californians can believe the delusion. The denial of reality is strong in this generation. Some of our closely held delusions:
-food just appears at grocery stores brought there by magical Keebler Elves
-fresh clean water is a human right and is available like magic at every faucet (elf magic even in desert climates)
-we can have whatever we want as long as it doesn't hurt someone else somewhere
-there are "good" countries/policies and "bad" countries/policies. We used to be bad because we were brutal and built this amazing civilization, but now we are good because we don't do that "brutal" stuff anymore
-we can control the climate on a planetary scale by how we vote and buying a certain type of car or lightbulb
...and most important of all in California, how things appear on the internet is most important! We can be virtuous and make the rest of the world dig and provide us with that gross smelly bad oil that we seem to need for some reason; but we can replace it by banning oil and putting up solar panels (which oddly enough are made out of oil)
Did anyone ever even watch the movie "Mad Max beyond Thunderdome"?? Did you even understand the basic underlying premise? It was a very simple story. 😆