05.22.15

Ranking Member Grijalva: Both Coasts, Alaska Can Expect California-Style Pipeline Disasters if Offshore Drilling Expands

Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva released the following statement today on the recent pipeline spill in California, which is now estimated to have spread more than 100,000 gallons of oil.

“This is what we can look forward to – up and down both coastlines, from Florida to California to Alaska – if we start opening up more unnecessary areas to offshore drilling. The oil industry and its Republican friends in Washington never stop telling us we need to drill more, deregulate faster, and stop asking questions about the environment. As we’ve seen with climate change, their rhetoric never matches reality and the public isn’t buying it.

“We need to stop treating environmental disasters as the cost of doing business and make more serious long-term renewable energy investments. Oil is a dirty fuel that harms the environment and warms our climate, plain and simple, and Republicans have to stop pretending otherwise. They also have to stop pretending that each major spill we see is an isolated incident. This is an endemic problem that won’t be solved with more drilling projects or shorter permitting times. It will be solved when we stop relying on offshore drilling and outdated pipelines to meet our energy needs.”

The company responsible for the spill, Plains All American Pipeline, sued to prevent Santa Barbara County from regulating its operation, as reported by The Santa Barbara Independent on May 19:

The broken Plains pipeline funnels 45,000-50,000 barrels of produced oil a day between ExxonMobil's Las Flores Canyon Processing Facility near Refugio to the Plains-owned Gaviota pumping station. From there, it travels to refineries in Kern County. The 10-mile pipeline was installed in the early 1990s. Notably, it’s the only piece of energy infrastructure on Santa Barbara County land that’s not under the county’s watch. When pipe was put in, Plains successfully sued to place it under the supervision of the State Fire Marshal's Office, arguing state management pre-empted local oversight.