Countywide : Effort to Revoke Tanker Permit Fails

The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday shot down a request by an environmental lobbying firm to revoke a three-year permit allowing Chevron Corp. to ship oil south by tanker along Ventura County’s coast.

The commission voted 9 to 0, with two abstentions, to deny the request made by the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara.

Linda Krop, an attorney with the center, argued that the permit should be revoked because commissioners were not given adequate information about its drawbacks before making their decision.

Under the terms of the permit, Chevron and its partners in the Point Arguello project north of Santa Barbara are allowed to load up to 2.1-million gallons of oil for transport down the coast.

Commissioners granted the permit with several conditions, including requiring the oil companies to use double-hulled tankers and mandating that all ship traffic must be halted by Jan. 1, 1996.

The oil companies must also make progress toward development of a pipeline that will move the oil from Santa Barbara to refineries in Wilmington. Transfer by pipeline is considered safer than by tanker.