Some environmental groups are celebrating a big court victory in their efforts to prevent the restart of oil drilling off part of the Santa Barbara County coastline.
A federal court upheld Santa Barbara County’s denial of ExxonMobil’s proposal to transport oil through the county with tanker trucks.
Three oil platforms owned by the company have been idle since a pipeline rupture, and massive oil spill on the Gaviota coastline in 2015. The pipeline was used to move oil out of the county to processing facilities. There are proposals to replace the damaged pipeline, but that could take years.
ExxonMobil sought permission to use tanker trucks to move oil until a new pipeline is in operation, so it could restart the platforms. But, citing the risk of accidents, and oil spills, Santa Barbara’s Environmental Defense Center and a coalition of other groups battled the proposal. County Supervisors rejected the proposal. The oil company challenged the decision in court, but lost that effort.
