Countywide : Coast Panel to Look at Revoking Permit

The California Coastal Commission has set a mid-April hearing to consider a second request to revoke a permit that allows Chevron Corp. to ship oil south by tanker along Ventura County’s coast.

The commission refused to revoke Chevron’s three-year tanker permit Wednesday when it found that even if the commission’s staff gave a misleading report in January, it would not be a proper basis for revoking Chevron’s permit.

However, commissioners agreed to decide during hearings April 13 to 16 whether the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara is correct in alleging that the oil company itself misled the commission and that the permit should be revoked.

Linda Krop, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Center, argued that the permit should be revoked because commissioners were given erroneous information about how much oil an existing pipeline can carry from Santa Barbara County to Los Angeles.

The conditions of Chevron’s permit with Santa Barbara County were also misrepresented, Krop argued.

Chevron’s permit allows the company to ship up to 2.1 million gallons of oil a day from its Point Arguello fields down the coast.

The permit carries several conditions, including the use of double-hulled tankers and the halting of ship traffic by Jan. 1, 1996.

The oil company must also make progress toward development of a pipeline system that would carry oil from Santa Barbara to refineries in Wilmington. Transfer by pipeline is considered safer than by tanker.