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By Henry Dubroff / Friday, January 3rd, 2014 / Columns, Opinion / Comments Off on Five tri-county economic trends we’ll be watching in the New Year
Conventional wisdom holds that with a federal budget in hand, a financial system on the mend, rising housing prices and steady job growth, 2014 ought to be a pretty darn good year.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, December 20th, 2013 / Central Coast, Technology, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Mafi-Trench gears up: Santa Maria manufacturer plans for new plant
James Reilly has been pushing for a new manufacturing plant to bring about 100 new jobs to Santa Maria for two years, and now the real work of getting it financed is about to begin.
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By Henry Dubroff / Friday, December 13th, 2013 / Columns, Opinion / Comments Off on A speed bump on the way to creating a chamber-led vitality group
The most concentrated effort to date to create a Santa Barbara County economic vitality organization has hit a roadblock. And that roadblock appears to be the Board of Supervisors’ bitterly divided vote on the Santa Maria Energy project, where South County supervisors banded together to impose severe carbon emissions limits on an innovative onshore oil and gas development that had broad support in North County.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, December 13th, 2013 / Central Coast, South Coast, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Outside funds fuel county’s energy boom
Santa Maria Energy’s deal to go public and bring its total funds raised to date to an estimated $90 million caps a flurry of renewed investment and activity in Santa Barbara County’s oil fields, both onshore and offshore. In addition to 136 wells that Santa Maria Energy has planned, Denver-based Venoco has proposals before regulators Read More →
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By Henry Dubroff / Friday, November 29th, 2013 / Opinion / Comments Off on Central Coast stands to be ground zero for cable market shakeup
You might call it the Central Coast Cable Conundrum.
And it goes something like this: During the national rollup of cable television properties that took place in the 1990s, a number of major players grabbed a sliver of the region.
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By Editorial Board / Friday, November 22nd, 2013 / Editorials, Opinion / Comments Off on Editorial: SB County oil cap vote is a slap in Santa Maria’s face
Santa Barbara County has slammed the door on the fingers of the Santa Maria Energy project — but not taken a stand that shuts that door completely. The approach has been, ‘If we can’t block it, we’ll regulate it in to nonprofitability.’
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, November 22nd, 2013 / Central Coast, Real Estate, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Emissions cap prompts oil firm backlash
Santa Barbara County’s decision to impose a strict cap on carbon emissions from a proposed oil project puts the county at a competitive disadvantage in California and likely will cut into the money energy firms pump into the regional economy.
The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Nov. 12 to require Santa Maria Energy to cap its carbon emissions at 10,000 tons per year. Santa Maria Energy had proposed 136 wells for a site near Orcutt.
Santa Barbara County’s oil is thick and viscous. In order to extract it, companies inject steam into wells to soften the oil. Burning natural gas to create the steam is what generates the bulk of carbon emissions.