Leave it to Andy Caldwell, reigning rhetorical firebrand of Santa Barbara’s right, to state the obvious: Greka Oil can change its name, but it can’t change its spots. Of the 1,550 notices of violation issued against oil companies operating in Santa Barbara County over the past four years, Greka — now known as HVI Cat Canyon — was responsible for 722 of them. Of the 423 barrels of oil and water that were spilled, Greka was responsible for 146. (None of that oil got into county creeks or nearby streambeds. All was contained.) All this came to light in a lengthy, statistically dense report on the state of the county’s oil industry, which was accepted by the county supervisors Tuesday night.
Caldwell, spokesperson for Coalition of Labor, Agriculture & Business (COLAB), argued that were it not for Greka — a habitual offender when it comes to its environmental safety record — Santa Barbara’s oil industry would have enjoyed a “stellar” four years.
Lining up on the other side of the room were five speakers from the Environmental Defense Center, who looked at the glass as more than half empty, rather than half full. Normally, the release of such annual reports — even about the oil industry — is a routine affair, but 2019 is different. Up for county consideration are three major onshore oil development projects located in Cat Canyon. All rely heavily on steam injection to get the oil from 3,000 feet below the surface. Combined, the three involve the drilling of 760 new wells. Some are for oil extraction and others for steam injection, an energy-intensive process that will generate 700,000 metric tons of greenhouses gases a year.