Elected officials on Tuesday approved sweeping restrictions curbing onshore oil and gas production across unincorporated Santa Barbara County.
In a 3-2 vote on a hard South County to North County divide, the Board of Supervisors greenlighted an ordinance years in the making. The vote came as a standing-room-only audience filled a Santa Maria hearing room.
The new rules ban new wells along the coast 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.
Supporters welcomed the strict measures as a key to reducing greenhouse gasses and combatting climate change. Opponents said they’ll kill jobs and harm the local economy.
“Every new well that we approve today is a bet that the market will still want oil in the 2040s and the 2050s,” said Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, who championed the ordinance with Second District Supervisor Laura Capps. “I believe that’s no longer a safe bet. Solar and battery storage costs have hit record lows.”
Capps described the ban as a historic moment.
“This is about laying a marker,” she said. “This is about saying who we are, what our values are.”
First District Supervisor Roy Lee joined Hartmann and Capps to pass the measure.
“I see a county that can be,” Lee said. “It can be that we focus on renewable energy and focus on creating new jobs.”
The ban comes as the board eyes even stricter rules. A future phase two still in development would phase out oil and gas drilling at existing facilities.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino criticized the ban.
South County policy makers don’t understand how limited the North County economy is, he said.
“If you want to stay here and raise a family and buy a house, you’ve got two choices basically,” Lavagnino said, referencing oil and gas and agriculture jobs. “Limiting one, it just doesn’t make sense to me… Ripping the stool away from people is not a way to success.
“Oil production has its tradeoffs, but so does tourism,” said Lavagnino, who noted millions of visitors travel to the South Coast in fossil-fuel burning cars, airplanes and cruise ships. “Why are we trying to kill off one, while we’re celebrating the other?”
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, Capps, Harmann and Lee in October directed county planners to draft an ordinance.
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 the runup to Tuesday’s vote, the leaders of four dozen environmental groups urged the county to approve the ban.
“This action is lawful, defensible and a necessary first step to achieving the goals set out in your Climate Action Plan,” Tara Rengifo, Senior Attorney at the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, told the board. “Your authority here is clear.”
However, opponents of the ban questioned its legality. And they said banning locally drilled oil makes the region more dependent on foreign oil drilled with less regulation.
“This industry gives back to the community in ways most people don’t see,” said Orcutt resident Alex Gutierrez, an employee of Sentinel Peak Resources. “It’s not just jobs. It’s youth sports, local charities and small businesses. Pushing this phaseout through will hurt my family and many others.”
Last week, board Chair Bob 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.
On Tuesday, Nelson pointed to research he said shows people tend to leave a region when an industry dies.
“We’re going to lose our local workers… people that grew up here,” Nelson said. “I’m really concerned about some of my neighbors, and my friends, people I grew up with that are in this room, that are impacted by what we’re doing here.”
