I would like to thank the Santa Maria City Council for approving a resolution in favor of ExxonMobil being granted a temporary trucking permit.
According to the California Energy Commission, California imports most of the oil it uses from foreign countries and other states. California uses 2 million barrels of oil per day but imports 1 million barrels, mostly from overseas sources.
Santa Barbara can help fix this by allowing ExxonMobil to continue safe production here in California. The Santa Ynez Unit restart ensures that we produce the energy that California relies upon as opposed to importing it from foreign places with less environmentally conscious regulation. All they need is the county Board of Supervisors to approve their temporary trucking permit.
As long as we continue to produce petroleum to power our economy, we should produce it here in Santa Barbara County because the energy we produce in California is subject to the most stringent environmental and safety standards in the entire nation.
In addition, all operations and trucking routes are designed with safety in mind and must be approved by the county. Adding up to 70 extra truck trips per day only increases the total number of all truck trips on an average day in the county by about 1 percent.
Restarting the facility ensures more of the energy we use in California is produced here, under strict protections, and mitigates the global impact of importing it from other countries.
I hope the County Board of Supervisors approves this permit.
