Sable Offshore, a convenient creation of ExxonMobil, seeks to reopen the same failed oil pipeline that caused the catastrophic spill of May 2015. Almost 150,000 gallons of toxic and cancer-causing crude flooded our water and beaches, contaminating one of the most biologically diverse areas of the West Coast and leaving taxpayers with the economic consequences.
The U.S. remains, by far, the world’s biggest oil producer. And job growth in clean energy fields continues to far outpace employment in fossil fuel industries.
Now ExxonMobil’s proxy wants to start up the same old corroded pipeline, after what they say will be “repairs.” Against all common sense and with a dangerous level of arrogance they are asking for a special waiver to allow them to avoid employing a protection system that prevents corrosion. This is the definition of irresponsibility.
The Board of Supervisors, Gov. Newsom and the State Fire Marshal can and must stop this corruption of our system of regulatory control of public health and safety hazards.
And, we are not powerless to tilt the balance. Sit-ins, boycotts, protest marches, and civil disobedience can help tilt the balance and save the county from the next inevitable, toxic catastrophe.
Seth Steiner
Los Alamos
