Chumash marine sanctuary could prevent coastal oil development

Kara Woodruff and Enrique Sanchez-Rivera point out that our local ordinance blocking onshore facilities for offshore oil drilling operations ultimately won’t block new offshore drilling and the oil spills that go with it (“Why you should support the Chumash marine sanctuary,” Nov. 28).

That’s true. Measure A, the county ordinance that calls for a vote of the people if an onshore facility were proposed for offshore drilling operations, does not prevent the acquisition of federal oil leases or prevent production from any leases that might be granted. Oil companies could just take any oil or gas they produce a little farther south to utilize existing onshore infrastructure.

If the price of oil goes up far enough to make that attractive, that’s what they’ll do, unless we have a national marine sanctuary in place to stop them.

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Chumash marine sanctuary could prevent coastal oil development."