Palisades Drilling Hearings Get OK to Proceed

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that city officials may proceed with an administrative hearing that could open the way for Occidental Petroleum Co. to drill for oil in the Pacific Palisades.

But Judge Norman Epstein made it clear that he will not allow drilling to actually begin until his environmental and legal concerns with the proposal are satisfied.

Epstein, who had issued an injunction last December blocking Occidental from going ahead with its plans, refused to change his original order voiding city ordinances that allowed oil drilling in the Palisades. But he sided with the company and city officials who asked that a public hearing before a city panel that could issue a permit to Occidental move ahead as scheduled.

“We’re very happy about it, we’re delighted,” said Maria Hummer, an attorney representing Occidental. “The administrative process, the public hearings can continue.”

Opponents of the drilling plan, including Palisades residents and homeowners, had sought to halt the proceedings before the Board of Referred Powers, which includes four City Council members who had voted for Occidental when the issue came before the council. The board will review an earlier decision by a city zoning administrator rejecting drilling.

Impact Report Required

In issuing his brief order, Epstein stressed Thursday that as long as his court injunction is in place, “there will be no oil drilling until and unless a proper (environmental impact report) is prepared and adopted, or new and valid (city) ordinances are adopted. . . .”

Colin Lennard, an attorney for No Oil Inc., a group of Pacific Palisades residents who have fought the Occidental project, said his group is happy about the judge’s restrictions, although he said: “It seems rather a waste of time to go through with the hearings and end up with just conditional permits.”

Lennard objected to the Board of Referred Powers’ hearing the case. The board had scheduled a hearing for Monday but postponed it until April 10 while it awaited the court decision.

“We cannot get an impartial and fair hearing before the Board of Referred Powers,” Lennard said.

The board consists of four council members--Hal Bernson, David Cunningham, Robert Farrell and Joan Milke Flores--who had voted for the Occidental drilling plan last year. The fifth member, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, opposed it.

Even if the board approved drilling, the project still could go before the California Coastal Commission.

Delays Add to Costs

In arguing for the administrative hearings to continue, both attorneys for the city and Occidental warned that prolonged delays will add to both the company’s and the city’s costs if Occidental should finally win the legal fight to drill in the Palisades.

And Hummer said Epstein’s ruling included adequate protections. “With that permit, you cannot go out and drill oil. That’s a distinction with a big difference,” she said.

The narrow legal issue revolved principally around the Board of Referred Powers’ attempt to review the city zoning administrator’s denial last December of the company’s oil drilling permit. The administrator upheld a claim by local residents that the drilling operation would have devastating effects on the beachfront environment.

Asked about claims that the Board of Referred Powers may not be impartial, Senior Assistant City Atty. Gary Netzer said that the city had no other choice but to place it before that panel. Netzer said his office had been told by the head of the Board of Zoning Appeals--which normally would handle the case--that there were conflicts that precluded that body from taking the case.

“As far as we’re concerned, there is no place else it can go to be heard,” Natzer said. “There’s no other body that can hear it that has jurisdiction here.”

No Permit Imminent

In legal papers filed with the court, the city attorney’s office also emphasized that “no final drilling authorization is imminent” even if a permit is granted Occidental.

In his ruling last December invalidating the City Council’s approval of the Occidental project, Epstein found legal defects in the environmental impact report submitted by the company as part of its drilling application to the city.

Epstein ruled that a critical element of the project--pipeline safety--had not been properly addressed in the environmental analysis and must be completed before the drilling operation can be approved. Drilling ordinances based on a faulty environmental review are not valid, he said.

Occidental has appealed that ruling.