Chevron’s Bid for Use of Tankers to Be Reviewed

In a victory for Chevron Corp., the state Coastal Commission agreed Wednesday to review the company’s latest bid to ship crude oil by tanker from Point Arguello to Los Angeles.

The commission voted 7 to 4 with one abstention to consider Chevron’s appeal of a recent decision by Santa Barbara County supervisors to allow Chevron to ship oil by tanker while an onshore pipeline from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles is being built. But the supervisors want Chevron to sign a binding agreement to use the pipeline when completed.

Chevron says it won’t commit to using the pipeline--which is not yet under construction--before it tests the Los Angeles market for Point Arguello crude. In order to do so, it says it must use tankers to ship oil to Los Angeles.

“We are disappointed but not terribly surprised,” said Jana Zimmer, special counsel to American Oceans Campaign, an environmental group.

Mindful of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, environmentalists and the supervisors have been wary of possible tanker accidents. They are concerned that Chevron will not stop using tankers once it starts, since they give greater flexibility in transport and are cheaper than building a pipeline.

“We are somewhat encouraged by a number of commissioners’ very probing questions and very strong statements regarding Chevron’s failure to keep their past commitments,” Zimmer said. She added that environmentalists also doubt that the commission staff can find a way to ensure that tanker traffic will not continue beyond an interim period.

If the Coastal Commission decides in Chevron’s favor, it would override the county requirement.

“We will look at the project application anew,” said Susan Hansch, a manager on the commission staff. “We’ll consider what the county did, but we could do something different.”

Chevron and its partners have invested more than $2.5 billion in the Point Arguello offshore wells and have been using roundabout routes to ship oil they began pumping a year ago. Chevron denies that it plans to use tankers indefinitely.

“We have done and continue to do all that is within our power to create pipeline capacity, and we are committed to use that capacity when that pipeline is constructed and ready to go,” Chevron spokesman Michael Marcy said. “Santa Barbara County had an opportunity to resolve this issue at the local level and did not.”

The commission will meet Nov. 17-20 in Marina del Rey.