Elected officials are poised to pass sweeping restrictions that would dramatically curb onshore oil and gas production across unincorporated Santa Barbara County.
An ordinance years in the making, the new rules would ban new wells along the coastal and inland—not offshore—allowing 1,039 active installations to continue operating while prohibiting fossil fuel producers from restarting 1,221 idle or abandoned drill sites.
The five-member county Board of Supervisors will consider the ban at its regular Tuesday meeting in Santa Maria.
Supporters cheer the strict measures as a key to reducing greenhouse gasses and combatting climate change. Opponents say they’d kill jobs and harm the local economy.
“I feel very strongly supportive of what we’re doing,” said Second District Supervisor Laura Capps, who championed the proposal in recent years with Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann.
Added First District Supervisor Roy Lee: “This is about health and safety for our families and community… We need to do it now, not wait.”
Board Chair Bob Nelson, whose Fourth District holds the majority of oil wells in the county, sharply criticized the proposal.
“I’m deeply disappointed that our board is going down this route,” Nelson said. “It’s a bad precedent.”
The proposal comes as the board eyes even stricter rules. A future phase two still in development would build on the current proposal and phase out oil and gas drilling at existing facilities.
Momentum behind the ban dates to August 2024, when the board adopted its 2030 Climate Action Plan. It calls for the phase out along with a 50% reduction in countrywide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
A month later In September 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3233. It gave cities and counties expanded authority to restrict or prohibit oil and gas operations.
Buoyed by that bill, a board majority of Capps, Harmann and Lee in October directed county planners to draft an ordinance.
“We’re making dramatic, dramatic changes to the planet,” Hartmann, who represents the Third District, said at the time. “It’s a tremendously difficult thing to make change… But we really have to.”
The wider, all-out phase two ban targeting existing wells still requires studies that include an environmental impact report. Adoption could take up to three more years and a full phaseout decades, officials say.
In recent years, Monterey, Ventura and Los Angeles counties as well as Culver City and the City of Los Angeles have limited or banned oil and gas extraction.
In Santa Barbara County, officials say no new oil and gas well permit applications are currently in process. The county last greenlighted an oil and gas drilling project in 2019 when it issued a land use permit to the Amrich Casmalia Oil Field southwest of Santa Maria off Black and NTU roads.
Leaders of four dozen environmental groups have urged the county to approve the ban.
“The most effective way to reduce oil and gas facility emissions is to prohibit new oil and gas
projects,” according to an April letter to the county from the local Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Center, Community Environmental Council, Society of Fearless Grandmothers Santa Barbara and others.
“Oil from Santa Barbara County is expensive and energy-intensive to produce, and it has no impact on gas prices which are determined by the global oil market and refining volume,” the letter said.
Economic benefits gave Capps motivation and justification to support the proposed ban, she said, describing its likely passage as a historic milestone.
Capps pointed to a 2025 UCSB report that found an oil and gas phaseout could prevent an estimated $54 to $81 million in “mortality-related costs” by 2045. In addition, the report said jobs in carbon-free energy and oil and gas facility decommissioning could offset employment losses.
“Phasing this out would mean working with companies responsibly and having a plan and no surprises,” Capss said. “If done right, this can be a source of employment.”
The principals of Asphalta, LLC, a North County operator, and affiliated companies questioned whether closing wells would in fact advance the county’s climate plan.
“The proposed restrictions would not eliminate demand,” they said in a Thursday letter to the county. “Rather, they would shift supply away from local production and toward imported crude or other outside sources that may be less local, less transparent, and more carbon-intensive.
“Such a result would undermine the county’s stated climate objectives while reducing local employment, vendor activity, tax base and reliable access to heavy crude used in infrastructure materials,” the letter said.
Board Chair Nelson said he expects a heavy North County turnout Tuesday.
Nelson estimated 85% of the oil wells in the county are in his Fourth District, which covers Orcutt, parts of the Lompoc Valley, Vandenberg Village, Mission Hills, Los Alamos, and parts of Santa Maria. Another 10% are in Cuyama, with the remaining 5% sprinkled across the rest of the county,” he said.
“This is an ordinance and an issue that affects me and my constituents mostly,” Nelson said, noting Santa Barbara County is already known for strict oil and gas regulations. “If regulation leads to better environmental outcomes, then we should be supporting oil and gas in Santa Barbara County.”
A longtime oil and gas supporter, Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino will retire this year after 16 years in office.
Battling for that open seat, candidates Maribel Aguilera, an attorney and Santa Maria City Council member, and Ricardo Valencia, a teacher and Santa Maria-Bonita School Board member, hope to win election in November.
Aguilera said she was campaigning and attending the Central Coast AirFest air show—and could not be reached for comment.
Valencia said he supports a phaseout that accommodates oil and gas workers.
“Our community has lived with the consequences of oil extraction for generations,” Valencia said in a statement. “The 1969 oil spill is part of our county’s history. Communities near active operations, particularly low-income and Latino neighborhoods in District 5, continue to bear a disproportionate share of the pollution and health impacts.
“The question isn’t whether we phase out fossil fuels,” he said. “The question is whether we do it in a way that takes care of the workers and communities most affected. I’m committed to making sure we do.”
