Chambers of
Commerce from across Santa Barbara County are coming together to voice their
support for the restart of ExxonMobil’s Santa Ynez Unit (SYU). The newly formed
Santa Barbara County Chamber Coalition commissioned a report from the
California Economic Forecast into the economic and fiscal impacts of restoring
SYU’s interim and full oil production in Santa Barbara County. The findings
from this study show that a lot is at stake, not only for the employees and
their families but for our county.
This
facility has been idle since May 2015. Until a pipeline alternative becomes
available, ExxonMobil is pursuing a temporary trucking permit to transport
crude oil to market — allowing for a phased restart of SYU. The interim
trucking proposal would result in the creation of hundreds of jobs and millions
of dollars in new income and spending.
Restarting
SYU will create a meaningful increase in funding to Santa Barbara County public
safety, fire protection, local government services and the local K-14 public
school system. Key findings of the report tie the vital funding missing from
Santa Barbara County to the shutdown of SYU.