Santa Barbara fumes over McCain drilling plan (but 59% of Californians want it)

LA Times ^ | 6/26/2008 | Maeve Reston and Michael Finnegan

[tobyhill]

SANTA BARBARA -- John McCain came to California promoting an array of ideas to spur the market for clean cars and otherwise reduce carbon emissions.

But in this coastal city, the site of a disastrous oil spill in 1969, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was dogged by critics at nearly every turn for his recent embrace of offshore drilling.

During an environmental round table Tuesday morning at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, McCain endured a lecture on his new position from one of the panelists invited by his campaign -- an anomaly in a tightly controlled political effort.

Michael Feeney, executive director of the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, repudiated McCain's position on offshore drilling, as well his advocacy for building 45 nuclear power plants by 2030.

[bmwcyle]

PUT A DRILL RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SANTA BARBARA.

[B Knotts]

We need drilling in that area now. There is oil there. Yes, there was an accident, but the area has recovered, and we have better procedures and technology now.

[B Knotts]

We need drilling in that area now. There is oil there. Yes, there was an accident, but the area has recovered, and we have better procedures and technology now.

[xcamel]

Because 99% of Santa Barbara residents suffer from arrested mental and emotional development dating at least as far back as 1969....

[popdonnelly]

To paraphrase the late George Carlin, Santa Barbara is Hippy Dippy Land.

[svcw]

1969 spill....in three months you could not even tell.
Besides before that every time you walked on the beach or swam you would be covered with tar and oil stuff.
Its like oh my gawd it caused problems baloney the water and shore was always full of tar and oil because there is so much available.
But there was a group started by Bud and Betty Bottoms call GOO “get oil out”, who caused many problems.
Yet they both drive gas guzzling cars guess thats ok.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

These do-gooders like Michael Feeney are responsible for $5 gasoline. Drill now ask questions later.

[mgc1122]

Time for the average person to start pushing back hard — kicking the collective nanny state asses of these fruits & nuts. These people have lost their collective freaking minds — assuming they ever had any.

[tobyhill]

I heard there's massive amounts of oil under L.A. but because of restrictions they are limited on the size of pumps and amount to recover. If California doesn't want to contribute they should get no gas or oil from any other part of the country. If they would block the interstate gas transports I guarantee the politicians would hear their constituents loud and clear.

[rockinqsranch]

“Its like oh my gawd it caused problems baloney the water and shore was always full of tar and oil because there is so much available.”

Same as Long Beach. Couldn’t go to the beach in the fifties without mineral spirits and soap to wash off the tar from ones toes.

[EdReform]

They want no drilling for oil? No nuclear power? Fine. Cut them off from gasoline deliveries and take them off the power grid. Let them provide their own alternative energy sources. Show us how easy it is to power everything with alternative fuel sources.

[hanamizu]

I remember the dorms at UCSB had bottles of kerosene to clean your feet of the tar that naturally floated ashore—this was in 1964—before the spill. You could not walk on the beach without getting it all over your feet.

We were told it naturally seeped up from the ocean’s bottom.

[B Knotts]

There is some oil produced onshore, up the coast a ways. From Paso Robles to King City, you see quite a few pumping units.

[crazydad]

It doesn’t matter what the Elitist say. For once the american people are opening their eyes. But the Libs wont let it happen. They will filibuster and lie to achieve their goals. And the DBM will be right there with them.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I can guarantee that Unocal and Texaco didn’t get it all...

[Red Badger]

NIMBY LIB RINOS.............

[RKV]

As a Santa Barbara local, I’d like to tell you to go [expletive] yourself.

[stuartcr]

You must be a crazed, America-hating, Muslim-demon-spawned, baby-killing, tree-hugging, God-hating, liberal-faced, demonkrap.