The Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 this week to support a bill co-authored by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson that would ban offshore oil drilling in state waters along Tranquillon Ridge.
The measure is functionally identical to a bill Jackson sponsored last year that died in the Assembly, but as the Refugio Oil Spill continues to occupy the collective consciousness, it raises the question: Will this year’s state bill be more successful?
SB 788 would eliminate an exemption in state law that allows drilling to take place three miles off the coast where state reserves are being drained by federal operations; T-Ridge is the only oil field off the California coast where this occurs.