Background information on the Huntington Beach or Orange County oil spill.
California controls drilling and pipelines out to three miles from the coast. The federal government controls those further out, at least to the 12 mile limit. There are 23 oil and gas platforms in the federal area off of the Southern California coast. Elly is the processing platform, while 20 others produce oil and gas, and two of the platforms are being dismantled. The total field has 27 platforms of which 8 are being decommissioned. 12 are not producing. The platforms cover 70 oil wells. Elly is 8.6 miles offshore, and the pipeline leak is about 4.5 miles offshore. The pipeline is 17.5 miles long. The spill has traveled all the way down to Dana Point.
The three million gallon Santa Barbara oil spil in 1969 stopped any new leases in state waters, and the latest federal well was in 1989. Trump proposed new leases, but Gov. Brown in 2018 banned any pipeline links to new wells.
KTLA, Channel 5, showed three transport ships that had been anchored in the region of the first detected spill on October 2nd. This is part of the backlog at the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor. Richard Charter of the Ocean Foundation has suggested that this might have caused the pipeline rupture. There is evidence that the pipeline was dragged 150 feet. There is a Harbor facility which assigns anchoring spots and warns ships of any pipelines in the area. The electronic navigation maps on ships also shows all underwater hazards such as internet cables, power lines, and pipelines. Martyn Willsher, CEO of the pipeline operator, Amplify Energy Corp., said that an anchor could have caused the damage but they are investigating further. He also said that the 126,000 gallons was a maximum estimate. He said that his company cleaned out the pipeline on alternate years, and inspected it on alternate years. Apparently, the last Huntington Beach oil spill, thirty-one years ago, was caused by an anchor.
Here is a TV capture of the Elly Platform which cleans out the water from the pumped oil.
Here is the shot of the Elly Platform linked to the Ellen oil drilling platform. The pipeline then extends further out to the Eureka drilling platform.
California in 2019 refined 29.7% from its oil, 11.9% from Alaska, and the rest of 58.4% from Foreign imports. It’s total refining was 616 million barrels. We are far from the central and eastern US oil sources. In 2020, the top Foreign oil importers to California were by percent of Foreign imports: Ecuador, 24%; Saudi Arabia, 23%; Iraq, 20%; Columbia, 8%, and Mexico, 5%. While the US has balanced its total oil usage, that is far from true for California or the US. The US imports half of its oil, and exports half of its oil. Don’t be fooled by those calling this US energy independence.
The Beta Oil Field on our Southern coast, was drilled about 40 years ago. It has generated more than 49 million barrels of oil. It was initially estimated to contain about 150 million barrels. California uses 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. So the total production so far of the field would only cover 27 days of current usage, or about a month. Yet it has been a danger for 40 years. That is 480 months. So it has roughly only provided 0.2% of our oil during that time period, although oil usage was lower 40 years ago. Even if the full 150 million barrels were realized 80 years from now, pumped at the same rate, it would still only be 0.2% of California oil usage, which will be rapidly reducing anyway. The US consumes 18 million barrels per day. Forty years of the Beta Field offshore production would only give 2.7 days oil to the United States.
Coastal Republican Rep. Michelle Steel has an Energy and Environment webpage, where she tries to balance clean beaches with our supposed necessity for drilling our own oil, to support our military? Her California 48th covers 30 miles of prime coast and beaches from Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach, running down to San Juan Capistrano. This is the very unfortunate choice of photo she made for this Environment web page:
Rep. Steel has written to President Biden to declare an emergency and provide funds for cleanup. The CEO of the oil company said that they and their insurance would fully cover the cost. My legal intern says that the oil pollution act of 1990 requires them to have such insurance. She also flew over the spill. Rep. Steel also attended the news conference at Bolsa Chica State Park, but wasn’t covered on TV.
Out of about $6.3 million in election funding for 2020, Rep. Steel only received about $60,000 or 1% from Energy/Natural Resource sources. That is no reason to back the now proven, dangerous local offshore drilling. Her real estate contributions were about $300,000, or five times as much, and they will be much more affected by the oil spill. This is one point for her to depart from Republican Trumpodoxy and support her own constituency, just like Trump made an exception from offshore drilling anywhere, excepting the Florida coast with his home at Mar-a-Lago.
