January/February 1969
Forty years ago and about 100 miles south, an ecological disaster unfolded that is still shaping national debate. It would be the worst oil spill in the nation’s history until the Exxon Valdez set a new standard.
The Vault’s first post on this subject July 16, 2008 has attracted hits almost every day since it was published.
During the month long fiasco, images of dying birds and seals were being broadcast on local evening news. The environmental movement was galvanized and given new national stature by this preventable accident.
Los Angles Times has a gallery of photos from the Santa Barbara oil spill.
About the time of the original Vault post the topic of offshore oil drilling became a football in the presidential campaign and since then new proposals for offshore drilling have been floated. Both the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News have published opinions on the subject.
The Los Angeles Times history blog, The Daily Mirror has published a front page from the spill as well.
Gasoline prices have taken a wild ride from over $5 a gallon to under $2 though they are creeping back up again.
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As I’ve stated before in other places on the Trib website, offshore oil production safety has improved 10 fold since 1969, this is most evident in the SB channel itself. For politicians to continue to spew ignorance of this, in the quest to keep us dependent on foreign oil (and the hundreds of billions we send to middle east and elsewhere that hate us). Drill now, drill California.
The general ignorance regarding the myth of becoming independent from foreign oil continues to muddy the offshore drilling debate. It is nether possible or pertinent to our energy policy to “break away” from foreign oil, because oil is a global market, traded as a commodity on financial exchanges, and bought and sold by the US as well as any other countries. The only answer to using less foreign oil is to use less oil, the source doesn’t matter. Why risk destroying the coastal environment. We need to use less oil, period. No matter how “safe” offshore drilling is, the cost of a spill like Santa Barbara 1969 well exceeds the gains. Look at the nuclear power model. We continue to create waste that can never be dealt with. Conserve, don’t drill!
We use the world oil market because our refinery infrastructure has not been built for over 30 years, leaving us unable to process American crude to any real degree. The technology is here, the ability is here. Drill our own, and KEEP our own, will ween us off foreign dependance. It really is that simple.
40 years later and still making the same mistakes…except exponentially larger. Seriously, is the human race so stupid it doesn’t learn?!?!? Drilling needs to cede the way to clean energy. It’s evolve or die, people. I opt for evolution.