The estimated 105,000-gallon oil spill that will ruin Memorial Day for thousands of visitors to Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County is a reminder of how much environmental issues have become economic stories. Santa Barbara County is so heavily dependent on hotel-related taxes that it literally can’t afford the kind of environmental disaster that Read More →
Denver-based oil and gas producer Venoco, which has significant operations on the South Coast, is pushing to have its revised environmental impact report approved for the recommissioning of an old well at Haskell’s Beach.
Federal officials have slashed their estimate for how much oil is held in California’s Monterey shale by 96 percent, but energy companies working in the Tri-Counties say they have no plans to abandon their efforts in the long-producing formation or its rising competitor, the diatomite.
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 →
