A donnybrook took place Wednesday at the County Planning Commission meeting in Santa Maria over whether to approve a large expansion of ERG oil and gas drilling in Cat Canyon. ERG Petroleum faced off against an army of resource and climate defenders.
In the morning, the County Planning Department and ERG Inc. presented the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and their case for going ahead with 187 new super steam injecting wells drilled through the Santa Maria groundwater basin. After lunch, the Commissioners heard comments from about 50 to 100 attendees. The comments were about 2 to 1 against this Sisquoc mega development.
Commenting first, I got one minute to describe several “inadequacies” in the EIR. I picked three big ones which were: