••• “Sable Offshore Corp. has successfully petitioned federal authorities to assume regulatory authority over its Santa Barbara County oil and gas pipelines, another move in the company’s attempts to restart production. […] The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration decided on Wednesday that two Santa Barbara County pipelines operated by Sable are interstate pipelines, removing them from state authority.” —Noozhawk (and subsequently, “Sable Offshore Corp. says it has received permission to restart pipelines connected to the Santa Ynez Unit, a week after it successfully petitioned to have oversight of the lines transferred to federal authority.” —Noozhawk)
••• “Most areas of Santa Barbara County got a heavy dousing from an atmospheric-river storm that hit the region Tuesday overnight into Wednesday, but no major flooding or related problems have been reported,” reports Noozhawk. With one exception: Santa Barbara Airport is closed due to runway flooding (updates here).
••• From Noozhawk: “The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has spent $5.3 million on overtime staffing in the first three months of the fiscal year, according to the County Executive Office. That’s about half of the annual overtime budget, and if the spending continues at that rate, the office could go over budget by $9 million.” From the report by the Auditor-Controller’s Office: “A recurring pattern was identified in which sheriff employees used leave balances (vacation, sick or other leave) to complete ‘time worked’ hours requirements associated with their standard FLSA work period while simultaneously coding overtime hours in the same period. This practice seems to effectively increase total overtime hours and was identified in 6,913, or 35.7%, of all timesheets, resulting in an estimated $5.9 million in FY 2024-25 overtime costs.”
••• The tree of the month is the Norfolk Island pine: “Because of their star-shaped top whorl of branches, they have another common name, Star Pine. The most easily recognized one in town, Santa Barbara’s Tree of Light, stands majestically on the corner of Carrillo and Chapala Streets. It is remarkably healthy, given that it is almost 150 years old and about 120 feet tall—the height of a 12-story building! Every December—for the last 97 years—members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 413, have decorated this tree’s boughs with strings of lights and placed a shining star at the very top, making it truly a Star Pine.” —Edhat
••• A Noozhawk article about “the reopening of La Casa de Maria as a gathering space after years of rebuilding”—a bit late, given that it started hosting events back in May—included this: “the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently removed restrictions on where La Casa de Maria could rebuild post-mudslide. That means the organization can finally rebuild the destroyed buildings where they originally stood.”
••• “A spill of approximately 4,500 gallons of untreated sewage due to equipment failure in Santa Barbara has led to a closure on East Beach.” —Noozhawk
••• “Work on the approximately $26.45 million San Jose Creek Multipurpose Path Project [in Goleta] began last week. The 3-mile path will serve as a direct link from Calle Real to Old Town businesses, and the Atascadero Creek Bikeway that also allows access to Goleta Beach Park, UC Santa Barbara and the city of Santa Barbara. The path is set to be completed by spring 2027.” —Noozhawk
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Let’s go Sable! TOOT TOOT!
Good for Sable. Let’s use the infrastructure that already in place (we need the oil) and run if safe! I’d rather have a well managed pipeline than tankers onloading out there.
I’m an environmentalist, but the EDC and GOO has no grasp on reality. Love my EV and solar system, but we still need oil.
Right on!
Yippppeeeee. Finally, the people who feel the need at every meeting to reduce the amount of business in Santa Barbara. In order to live their dream life at the cost of the impact it has on the working class have lost. The working poor and santa, barbara society in general side from the santa barbara liberals that want to do everything they can to act anti business the . results inls the price of electricity, water gasoline, sales tax, state tax go up and up in order to fund, dear neo ecology dreams.
You might want to taper off the gummies.
Season’s greetings –
Lest any newcomers to this site see the comments here and surmise that most readers of Siteline are right wing hawks (or fanatics) – I’m chiming in to say that’s decidedly not the case…
Go Sable? Hardly —
Let them drill in other places that don’t happen to be among the most beautiful and unspoiled places on the continent.
Go Environmental Defense Center! Let’s bring this situation up to date —
https://www.noozhawk.com/environmental-groups-sue-federal-government-over-sable-pipeline-approval/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Noozhawk
Not the case here. Even in this small discussion forum, it’s important not to exist inside an echo chamber. You have an opinion and that’s great, but to call others right wing hawks and fanatics isn’t fair. We just have a different opinion than you.
Do you mean that you prefer to produce in an environment that you don’t live in? one that has no oversight and will with no doubt be produced with less safety and environmental oversight, so it will pollute more and kill more wildlife and people, but since it’s not in your backyard, it doesn’t matter? that is a narrow view of the world and definitely not better for the planet.
Exactly, Producing here is far more environmentally friendly (as a whole) than just importing your energy from somewhere else (tankers from international sources).
Let’s go Sable!