The Goleta city council last night was not quick to embrace a a new Venoco Oil proposal for the near-shore waters.
Venoco aims to shut down its Ellwood plant and platform Holly offshore in 25 years, instead of the longer timeline its on now.
The schedule would come with approval to extend drilling into a new, potentially lucrative nearby oil area off the coastline.
Venoco also says it would abandon and return a large section of the leased land offshore back to the state of California.
A hearing of the proposal in front of the state lands commission is set for October 19th.