City of Santa Barbara votes down offshore drilling

AP via SFGate ^ | 9/9/8

[SmithL]

Santa Barbara, CA (AP) -- The Santa Barbara City Council has voted to support a continued ban on oil drilling off the California coast.

The largely symbolic vote came Tuesday night — two weeks after the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of lifting the ban. City Council members say their vote was meant to reaffirm Santa Barbara's reputation for environmentalism.

[RedCell]

Fine. Let THEM pay more at the pump. Freakin’ left-coasters.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Maybe if “BIG OIL” (reverb/off) withheld all shipments of gasoline to Santa Barbara and divided those shipments up equally for the rest of us, Santa Barbara might be able to understand a little better. “Can you hear me now?”

[chaos_5]

Stupid effin retards b**** about oil on their beach's, never mind oil seepage goes down when you pump it out of the sea bed. I say we vote to ban all fossil fuel imports to them, and all electricity generated by fossil fuels (for Nancy Pelocie, that includes natural gas).

I HATE THOSE IDIOTS!!

really..

i do.

[top 2 toe red]

I'd say, fine, let them ride their damn bikes or walk.

Close all their gas stations and turn them into something they need more of...Starbucks!

[Defiant]

Luckily, they have no jurisdiction over the matter. What would be funny would be if they would increase drilling off of Santa Barbara, but not give any of the oil to Santa Barbara, since they opposed us having it.

[ROTB]

But, not drilling for oil will mean higher prices!

Higher prices mean less food for THE CHILDREN!

Don’t they care about ... children?

[Hattie]

When you run out Santa Barbara, you’re not getting any from TX.

[Smokin' Joe]

Stupid is as stupid does...

[SoldierDad]

Liberal idiots in Santa Barbara and other bastions of liberal loonacy do not represent the rest of California (most of CA counties are red - there are only a handful of counties which are blue due to the large influx of carpet baggers and illegal immigrants who have been registered to vote by unscrupulous liberal morons). Santa Barbara (and the rest of the coastal counties that are red) can all fall into the ocean as far as I’m concerned.

[According2RecentPollsAirIsGood]

I do wonder if, as many others have said, there really would be some way to cut off places like this for their intransigence and dumbassery. I know this measure is symbolic, and I don’t know if every major oil company is similarly affected by the ban, but I sure would love to see them all get together and turn off the tap to places that don’t like them. Just like I’d like to (though never will) see the government tell San Fran and Berkeley to go stuff it if they ever need military assistance after the way they treat our troops. These cities could use some direct consequences to their actions instead of getting away with them because we’re supposedly in everything together as country.

[politicket]

The largely symbolic vote came Tuesday night

The largely COMPLETELY symbolic vote came Tuesday night.

There...fixed it.

[GOP Poet]

The City voted against the drilling and they are very liberal. The county however is made up of smaller areas within the county and is not made up of the predictable liberal yahoos that dominate politics along the California coast (this does not include the O.C or parts of San Diego). This is why you see such a discrepancy in the voting.

Santa Barbara is actually a pretty big county and the county folks often drive many miles to get to work or to shop etc in Santa Barbara. They live in the real world of spending a whole lot of cash on their daily commutes to work so they can afford to pay their bills.Plus Santa Barbara city is actually a pretty small city in fact it is mainly a town--a very wealthy town.

[SeaWolf]

Then they should give up all petroleum based products, which included clothing, medicine, and fuel. They would probably be happier living in a mud hut and working the fields with oxen anyway.

[SpaceBar]

The Santa Barbara City Council has no legal juridiction to block exploitation of offshore Federal drilling leases. They could appeal their case to the State of California where the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of the State of California to review and disapprove federal offshore oil and gas leases as not “consistent” with California laws to protect the coast and environment in State of California v. Gale Norton (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Case No. 01-16637).

[HarleyD]

Perhaps the Republicans should suggest a surcharge on those jurisdictions that don't wish to get behind an consolidated energy approach.

Then again, there's eminent domain and the Federal government simply taking the land. Simply take the land for the good of the nation. I'm sure the Supreme Court would quickly reverse itself once that started happening.

[bestintxas]

ALL gasoline and oil-related products sent to Santa Barbara should now receive a tariff to compensate those communities across America who choose to exploit their resources.

Message: Its fine to choose, but you will pay for it.

[GOP Poet]

The Santa Barbara City Council has no legal juridiction to block exploitation of offshore Federal drilling leases. They could appeal their case to the State of California where the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of the State of California to review and disapprove federal offshore oil and gas leases as not “consistent” with California laws to protect the coast and environment in State of California v. Gale Norton (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Case No. 01-16637).

Smart FReeper alert! :-). Thanks for the post. Nice to have someone that understands the legality of the issue, especially in this state where they are trying to copyright laws so people have to pay for them to publish! Wow. This state is turning into the new USSR. I haven't even mentioned the gathering of signature for a new wealth tax and exit tax!!! My, my. Give libs and inch they take a country!