Anybody know how to fight the oil companies? Central Coasters pay attention to this in California

[Cleita]

DUer emsimons33 and I just discovered that Phillips 66 are laying an oil pipeline through our neighborhood that is from Arroyo Grande to the oil field in Price Canyon in Pismo Beach. Nobody knew about it except for a throwaway remark in an email we got from an activists organizing grass roots action against Union Pacific bringing oil bomb trains through the area with combustible and volatile Alberta tar sands in them. It mentioned the oil pipeline already permitted and work started. I have talked to people in the neighborhood and NOBODY KNEW ANYTHING! It seems they only had to notify anyone having property within 300 feet of the planned pipeline.

I took a ride down Old Oak Park Road that ends on Ormonde Road which connects to Price Canyon. I was stopped halfway there by road crews on Thursday who told me they were working on the pipeline. Friday evening after the crews had gone home emsimons33 and I went down the whole road to see what they were up to. Quite a bit of work has been done already. Also, since it's pretty much of a rural and wilderness area so there aren't that many private homes, which are ranches, there. I didn't count them but maybe less that fifteen families got a notice. We also saw that many of these ranches had For Sale signs up.

This is an important part of the watershed in south San Luis Obispo county and the aquifer provides water to the ranchers and residents up here. Considering the oil spill in Santa Barbara that happened from the same type of pipeline, all a spill has to do is reach one of the creeks and it's on it's way to the ocean less than a few miles away. It seems the area is riddled with these pipelines in various stages of disrepair and not inspected frequently enough due to state agencies not having enough inspectors to do the job. I think we need to get rid of these oil companies altogether and keep the oil for our own use. Also bringing bulldozers in an area that has some 100 year old oak trees, which might have to be destroyed seems like an environmental crime to me.

Information is really sparse. We don't know which government agency approved the Planning Department issuance of the permit and frankly how many palms were greased as there was very little reported on it in the local press. Yeah, and don't say I shouldn't make those accusations. It's been the way the oil companies have done business here in Southern California for more than a hundred years. Upton Sinclair writes about it in his fictionalized novel, "Oil" which is about the Doheny and other oil families who started the oil industry here from Los Angeles, through Bakersfield and over here to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara and they did it by bribing the local officials from bottom to top. I can't see that things haven't changed.

We have had opportunities to question local politicians like Board of Supervisors, State Senators and Assembly people about various problems and we always get the same answer, it can't be done because the lobby is too powerful and many variations on the same theme that there is some hidden factor out there that makes changes people want not possible. So if anyone has any ideas on how two mature women take on the Oil Beast, we are all eyes.

X-post to California Forum.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. If we knew how to fight the oil companies,

Alaska would still be a Democratic state.

[Cleita]

3. Good point and the county I live in is very conservative too. However, you guys get a

cut at least in the revenues. All we get is high prices on our gas. Yesterday, it was $3.75 a gallon for the cheapest stuff.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Wow, that's even more expensive than here.

I think ours is $3.27.

[Cleita]

6. Yes, and our oil gets shipped out to the global market while they go on their merry way

polluting our beaches and wildlife areas.

[reddread]

16. considering the dominance of that industry on the other side of your hill

they provide a number of jobs anyway.
also a remarkable purple haze.

[Cleita]

22. Ah yes the jobs argument. We have to have toxic industries in our midst because of the

jobs they do or might provide. Sorry no cigar on that one.

[reddread]

31. you mentioned a cut of the revenue

that seems like one.
one of the few, maybe most powerful industrial forces is not going to be wished away.
they can be replaced, their influence diminished, but not by electing their handservants.

[lonestarnot]

2. Can't someone get a fucking injunction?

[Cleita]

4. Can we? If there is anyway we can stop it before one drop of oil goes into it we will try.

Do you know how that works?

[lonestarnot]

7. Have the property owners let their rights slip?

[Cleita]

8. They didn't know about it because the permit issued to them said only those living within 300

feet of the proposed pipeline needed to be notified. We are trying to figure out a way of letting people know that isn't going to cost us because we are two old ladies with limited incomes. The media doesn't seem to want to cover this and I did get permission to write something about it in the local Democratic Club's newsletter but that won't come out until Sept..

[lonestarnot]

9. Then start with the deficiency of the notice or something. Someone will have standing.

CA's roof is on fire already.

[Cleita]

10. Thanks. That's an idea. eom

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. You are gonna have to do some homework.

You need to know what permits and approvals the oil company needed to do the work
what limitations, rules, regulations they have to follow to do the work.

Your state environmental protection office might be able to answer questions, and you can find out a lot of stuff via an internet search under requirements.

Also find out what Cal. groups would have info and can help you.
Try to find a Cal. environmenta blogger who can help get the work out.

And call a meeting of those people who have for sale signs on their homes, around what to do to try to stop the pipeline.

[Cleita]

12. Thank you. That is very practical advice. I have started doing the homework and already feel

over my head wishing I probably had more knowledge of geology. I think I might start looking at the permits and rules and regulations instead and try to find someone who can read the maps and geological studies.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. The geology etc is not as important as he question if they are following the law and regs.

Do they have the right of way?
Is their permit in conflict with any existing law/conservation bills, etc?
Who owns the right of way where they are building?

And, in light of the water crisis, is what they doing gonna impact current conservation requirements?

someone needs to find the environmental impact forms they filed.

See if you can get a volunteer lawyer or environmentalist to help.

Those landowners being impacted might know some helpful people.

When you get your information together, and if you find any problems, get local tv news station to do a story.
But you have to have facts before then.


It took 6 years, but a small group of folks in our lil area defeated a HUGE corporation that wanted to plant a toxic waste dump in county.

[Cleita]

14. Good for you. I'm going to a house gathering of activists in a few minutes for the oil bomb trains.

I'm hoping there will be just the same professionals you mentioned there who might help us with this issue that is sort of separate but not really. It's part of the big oil problem we as a nation and even the world are facing.

[jwirr]

15. Have they done an EPA study. Probably but it is worth asking.

[Cleita]

24. I did find this:

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PL/negative+decs/2014+-+Reports/09+September/09-25-14+Phillips+66+Pipeline+Negative+Declaration.pdf

[jwirr]

25. I am not going to read it because the extent of my understanding ends with asking my first

question but maybe with more knowledge can take it from here.

[Cleita]

29. I don't expect you to.

I have been digging up these documents though.

[jwirr]

30. That is good. Hopefully you find something to use in them.

[Octafish]

17. Big Oil can afford to tell the Big Lie.

The only thing We got is Truth. That's why the spying etc.

Coal, Oil, Gas: None Shall Pass

A growing movement across the Pacific Northwest is gumming up the fossil-fuel works.

byDaphne Wysham
OtherWords, Wednesday, August 05, 2015

EXCERPT...

According to the Department of Interior, there’s a 75 percent chance of a spill once Arctic drilling commences. Though Shell claims otherwise, a spill there could be impossible to contain.

Moreover, drilling in the virgin Arctic means tapping into oil reserves that scientists say we must leave in the ground to avoid irreversible climate change.

Rappaport did pull it together. His spectacular photos ended up on the Rachel Maddow Show and elsewhere. But he was a changed man.

The Fennica fight was only the latest in a growing movement across the Northwest. With little to no activist experience, people like Rappaport are stepping forward to block new gas pipelines, along with coal, oil, and gas export terminals. They’re even attempting to stop the accident-prone trains hauling thousands of barrels of fracked crude oil across vast distances in their tracks.

We call this emerging people-powered resistance movement “Blockadia.” A well-known banner hung from another Portland bridge sums it up: “Coal, Oil, Gas: None shall pass.”

The reason for this blockade is clear. The Sightline Institute has identified 28 new fossil fuel export projects slated for the Pacific Northwest whose collective carbon load would be five times greater than the infamous Keystone XL pipeline — the ill-fated piece of oil infrastructure that former NASA climate scientist James Hansen said would be “game over” for the planet all on its own.

Though we lost this round with the Fennica fight, we Blockadians have discovered that together, we’re quite powerful.

For example, after months of campaigning beginning last fall, the Climate Action Coalition persuaded Portland Mayor Charlie Hales to pull his support from the single largest business investment in our city’s history: a propane export facility that would have brought mile-long propane trains to town every day from Alberta.

CONTINUED with links for inspiration...

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/08/05/coal-oil-gas-none-shall-pass

I should say something about staying anonymous, given the FBI's track record. BWTF, Uncle Sam will know who's who based on the say-so of Booz Allen Carlyle Group Blackwater chums' say-so.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. Drilling in the arctic will benefit no one,

least of all Alaska, which doesn't even get financial remuneration from offshore drilling in federal waters, unlike Louisiana and Texas. So no benefit to us but all the risk to our fair state, a threat to the marine mammals, fish and polar bears, and destruction of a very delicate ecosystem that our northern neighbors depend on for their subsistence. It's an absolutely boneheaded idea that many people here are opposed to. And Shell's record so far has been abysmal.

[Octafish]

20. Money to be made is the only ''positive'' reason I can think of.

Anybody with a working rig wants the black gold. Russia. Canada. Norway. Netherlands. USA... Taking it out of the ground and putting it into the air seems pretty dumb, first of all, climate collapse and all; otherwise, Arctic drilling seems almost as if they WANT the environment to collapse and the Arctic region further soiled and its First People and wildlife harmed.

The fact these clowns are preparing for doomsday makes me think they WANT an environmental collapse. They have already purchased their safe havens aboard ship, offshore, some undisclosed underground location. For evidence: They have created a global seed vault and sanctuary north of the Arctic Circle and have quarters and staterooms available courtesy of PNAC Carlyle Group CIA Lumumba honcho Frank Carlucci.

Trust me, Blue_In_AK, I hope I'm wrong. But, like CCR said, there's a bad moon rising.

[Octafish]

18. Documents Show California Pipeline Spill Much Worse Than Initially Disclosed

Earnings reports for the Texas-based company reveal that 40 percent more oil may have leaked from ruptured coastal pipeline

byLauren McCauley, staff writer
CommonDreams.org, Aug. 6, 2015

An oil pipeline spill along the Santa Barbara coast this spring may have been up to 40 percent bigger than originally estimated, documents made public Wednesday revealed.

The quarterly earnings report for Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline disclosed that as many as 143,000 gallons of crude may have been spilled during the May 20 pipeline rupture. Previous estimates held that approximately 101,000 gallons were spilled.

"The company is continuing its analysis, and the figures are preliminary," AP reports.

During the spill, oil flowed from the aging pipeline, which runs parallel to route 101, down a culvert into the ocean along Refugio State Beach. An oil sheen was visible up to fifty yards off the coast.

In the weeks following, small tar balls were found as far south as Redondo Beach in Los Angeles County and, according to the Los Angeles Times, "hundreds of sea birds and mammals, many coated in crude, washed up in the spill area."

SOURCE w LINKS: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/06/documents-show-california-pipeline-spill-much-worse-initially-disclosed

[Cleita]

23. Look what I found. "Request by Plains Exploration & Production Company..."

http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PL/environmental/plains/Environmental/initialstudy.pdf

Request by Plains Exploration & Production Company for a Conditional Use Permit
to allow for the expansion (Phase V) of an existing oil field that will include the following
elements: addition of 11 new well pads and modification of 38 existing pads to provide for up
to 350 new oil wells; installation of additional production and steam lines to the new wells;
expansion of existing electrical power system; replacement of existing pipe bridge and
installation of new pipe bridge over Pismo Creek; and replacement of existing office trailers
with larger office facilities. This expansion is expected to increase daily oil production from the
currently approved 5,000 barrels to 9,000 barrels. One previously approved element from the
Phase IV permit (three steam generators) would be constructed at the same time as the
proposed expansion. No hydraulic fracturing is proposed. The project is located on both sides
of Price Canyon Road, extending approximately 3/4 mile to the north and ¼ mile to the south
of Ormonde Rd., northeast of Pismo Beach, in the San Luis Bay (inland) planning area.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no date on this but it does refer to documents up to 2005. The Creek referred to that flows right past the oil field flows down into the ocean.

[Facility Inspector]

21. 1. Become a billionaire

2. Start a NPO lobby and some Super PACs

3. Funnel money to sympathetic local government races, state reps, state senators, US Reps, US Senators.

4. Keep throwing money at it and run tons of teevee ads

5. Maintain seamless communications with Oil Company Bigwigs and your bought and paid for politicians.

Now do this much or more to even register on TPTB's map.

[HappyPlace]

26. Rail or Pipeline, the refineries want their raw materials, I guess.

I know Phillips has assets near Arroyo Grande but why Pismo? And where is this oil going to and coming from???

[Cleita]

27. This I know.

It's coming from an oil field in Price Camyon which is in Pismo. It's going I believe to the Phillips refinery in Nipomo south of here through Arroyo Grande. The oil field is run by another oil company, or it could be a shell company for Phillips for all I know. It has a different name.

[HappyPlace]

28. I just drove from Shell Beach up to San Francisco on Wednesday.

One sees a lot of pump jacks along 101, but I didn't know about a refinery in Nipomo.

Thanks!