Policy Update // Phillip 66 Oil Trains SLO County
Phillips 66 decided not to appeal the Coastal Commission’s permit denial at the May hearing. Instead, Phillips is going straight to court — or more accurately, back to court, because it already filed a lawsuit challenging the county’s designation of environmentally sensitive habitat. Read more here.
News Update // Huntington Beach Desalination Plant
Interesting news from former senator Barbara Boxer. “Poseidon really wants to profit off California’s drought fears, and they are pulling out all the stops to try to get the Huntington Beach desalination plant approved,” says Ray Hiemstra of Orange County Coastkeeper. That’s why they hired former Senator Barbara Boxer and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez to lobby for its harmful desalination proposal in Huntington Beach. Read more here: http://bit.ly/2pSVZ1K
News Update // Venoco Oil
Sacramento, CA – Today, the State Lands Commission received documents from Venoco, LLC quitclaiming its interests in the South Ellwood Field leases, including Platform Holly and the Goleta Beach Pier leases offshore the City of Goleta, Santa Barbara County. This effectively ends commercial oil and gas production in state waters at this location in the Santa Barbara Channel and returns operational control of these assets to the Commission. California’s Coastal Sanctuary Act prohibits the Commission from issuing new offshore oil and gas leases. The Commission will now begin the process of decommissioning Platform Holly.” Read more here.
Policy Update // AB 1129 - Coastal Access and Protection Act
Passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources on Monday, April 17. Next up – Appropriations Committee. Stay tuned!
News Alert // San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station
“'It’s hard to think of a worse place to store radioactive waste than a few feet from the beach at San Onofre, which is in the proximity of millions of people, one of the state’s most popular beach parks and home to some of California’s best surfing areas,” says Dr. Chad Nelsen CEO of Surfrider." – Surfline recently covered the issue.
In addition, Surfrider attended the San Clemente City Council on Tuesday evening to comment on possible policy solutions for relocating the spent waste. If you haven’t already – please sign the action alert here.