At the Santa Barbara County
Planning Commission hearing in Santa Maria on March 13, the statistics
presented regarding “responsible domestic energy” were inaccurate. Mistakes
were made with figures for oil operations both at Cat Canyon and elsewhere in
the world. At the hearing, we were told that extracting oil domestically is
preferable to importing oil specifically in terms of carbon intensity. This
claim, however, is false.
Our fact-checking also shows that in the most recent data available, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) gives Cat Canyon a carbon intensity, or greenhouse-gas emissions, of 7.83 g/MJ (grams per megajoule). This is almost double what we heard at the hearing, where the out-of-date figure of 4.08 g/MJ was presented.
The state's official figures
for the proposed steam injection techniques at Cat Canyon are much worse than
those presented last week. It would be irresponsible for the county to allow
the project to proceed.