Santa Barbara County is in financial trouble and has to make severe program cuts to balance its budget. Due to extreme weather-caused fire and flood events, disaster response and recovery costs have skyrocketed, and the county is in a very vulnerable position.
Two oil conglomerates, ERG and AERA, are about to proceed on plans to dramatically expand their oil production in North County by drilling hundreds of dangerous high pressure and high temperature steam injection wells through the Santa Maria Water Basin. They say that now is the time for the county to approve these polluting projects and bring in badly needed revenue to solve the current fiscal crisis.
Big Oil is lavishing millions in donations to needy nonprofit organizations and to local politicians to assure county approval of their dangerous fossil fuel projects.