Replies

Can you harvest these?

If the government would let us!

http://www.communityenvironmentalcouncil.org/pressroom/PDFs%202008-/DailySound_SOSmeeting.pdf

Community Environmental Council (CEC) spokesman Michael Chiacos says
more drilling is the last thing he and his organization want to see. Santa Barbarabased
CEC is an environmental nonprofit focused on energy efficiency,
alternative transportation, and climate change.
“We need to stop hunting and gathering pockets of oil and focus on renewable
energy,” Chiacos said.
But Allen and SOS California founder Lad Handelman argue that by allowing
drilling near the natural seeps, Santa Barbara can greatly reduce the amount of
pollution in its ocean and, through the extra tax revenue, fund research for and
implementation of renewable forms of energy.
By the end of the discussion, Allen had Chiacos — a die-hard environmentalist
who makes his own biodiesel from local restaurant waste — personally agreeing
that drilling may be the right move for the future of Santa Barbara. Allen said
there is potential to drill the equivalent of 1.8 billion barrels of oil from the Santa
Barbara Channel from already discovered, but undeveloped fields. The
production of these fields, he said, would bring tax revenues of $1.6 billion per
year to the State of California and $330 million per year to Santa Barbara County
for the next 20 years. Money he argued could then be used to build a solar
thermal farm that could permanently supply 100 percent free solar electricity to
every household in Santa Barbara County and provide a $10,000 credit on a new
electric or hybrid vehicle every four years.
“The money could also be used to fund new wastewater treatment facilities and
education programs for Santa Barbara,” Allen said.