Monday’s hearing on a trucking permit request from ExxonMobil had all the makings of a powder keg ready to blow — a stuffy room filled beyond capacity with environmentalists and oil workers dug into opposite sides of a hot-button issue. Surprisingly, few sparks flew and even fewer tempers were lost, though there was a definite sense of urgency in this regional energy debate. Just hours earlier, as many oil critics noted, the United Nations had released a sweeping study that said climate change was pushing more than a million plant and animal species toward the brink of extinction. The public meeting with the County Energy Division was the beginning of the county’s approval process. It is scheduled to reach decision-makers, first the Planning Commission, then the supervisors, in the fall.
The hearing was a chance for the public to weigh in on a new draft report that outlines the potential environmental impacts of Exxon’s proposal. The company wants to restart its three offshore drilling platforms and use tanker trucks to transport the oil inland as it waits for Plains All American Pipeline to replace the line that broke and caused the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill. The trucking would stop once the new pipeline was built or after seven years, whichever came first, unless the county extended the permit.
The proposal calls for the production of 11,200 barrels of crude a day (about one-third of Exxon’s production rate before the spill) that would be hauled by a maximum of 70 trucks operating 24/7. The trucks would use Calle Real and the Refugio-U.S. Highway 101 interchange to access the facility in Las Flores Canyon, then drive either to a pump near Santa Maria or further along through San Luis Obispo on Route 166, eventually reaching a transfer station in Kern County. Alternatives include limiting the number of trucks to 50 a day, stopping operations if a half inch or more of rain is predicted along the routes, and trucking to the Santa Maria station only. The report found that the most serious potential consequence would be a spill. Second to that were impacts to air quality and traffic.