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Historic Overview of the Energy Division
Introduction
Santa Barbara County formed the Energy Division in 1982 as a special
unit within its planning department to address a large influx of
offshore oil and gas development(1) with related
onshore infrastructure and industrial facilities. This influx was
by no means the County's first experience with offshore oil and
gas development. However, several forces had converged between 1947
and 1982 that would shape a new era for such development, causing
the County and oil producers to make significant adjustments in
the way they did business.
One set of forces enabled and stimulated a major expansion of offshore
oil and gas development beyond near-shore fields. New technological
advances in offshore drilling during the 1940s and federal legislation
enacted during the 1950s allowed oil companies to tap oil and gas
reserves situated farther distances from the coast via fixed offshore
platforms. In 1973, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo on oil exports to the United
States, spurring the nation's first non-wartime energy crisis. These
and other factors led to 10 oil and gas lease sales in federal waters
offshore California between 1966 and 1984. A total of 369 tracts
were leased, a majority of which were situated offshore Santa Barbara
County. Local decision-makers faced an unprecedented boom in oil
and gas production, with increasing demand to industrialize the
relatively scenic and rural Santa Barbara coastline.
A second set of forces influenced the way in which new offshore
oil and gas development would proceed, bringing attention to issues
of public safety, environmental protection, and other concerns of
local communities impacted by such development. The 1969 oil spill
in the Santa Barbara Channel, followed by new federal and state
environmental laws adopted in the 1970s, considerably changed the
process by which offshore oil and gas development would be permitted
and operated. Offshore oil had long been controversial in Santa
Barbara County, and the 1969 spill focused that controversy into
well-organized opposition. The environmental laws enacted during
the 1970s brought about extensive requirements to eliminate, or
significantly reduce, adverse effects on the environment, and gave
citizens more voice in policy and planning decisions. Some oil producers
resisted this new era of regulation; however, others were more willing
to accept it, and its associated costs, with the expectation that
the price of oil would reach $50 per barrel by the 1990s and provide
a substantial return on their investments.
By the late-1970s, the convergence of these forces marked the beginning
of a new era for offshore oil and gas development. The pending offshore
oil boom and new regulatory environment posed significant new challenges
for Santa Barbara County - a point not initially acknowledged by
the federal government or oil industry. County decision-makers drew
upon past experience with major coastal oil and gas projects to
tackle a range of issues - both old and new - including big picture
policy questions regarding public safety and environmental protection
and organizational questions regarding a boom in permit applications
for complex industrial facilities. Among other things, County decision-makers
formed the Energy Division.
The Energy Division's first decade largely reflected efforts to
balance the boom in offshore oil and gas development with the County's
desire and legal obligation to protect public safety, the environment,
and quality of life for its citizens. Ultimately market forces considerably
tempered the boom in offshore oil development by the 1990s, and
created a new set of challenges. Instead of reaching $50 per barrel,
the price of offshore oil generally stayed below $18 per barrel,
partly as a result of the 1985 collapse in worldwide oil prices
and partly as a result of competition with crude oil from Alaska's
North Slope. As described below, generally low and unstable oil
prices would be key in shaping the Energy Division's direction over
the past two decades.
(1) The County's historic experience dates back
to the first successful effort to develop offshore oil and gas worldwide
in 1896, when oil producers built piers from the beach offshore
Summerland to serve as drilling platforms. Development of near-shore
oil and gas reserves spread to other locations in the County between
1930 and 1965.
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