New Owner for Pipelines 901 and 903 in Gaviota Approved
Planning Commission Meeting a Mishmash of Exxon Companies and Another Owner in the Wings
“There’s no dispute that ExxonMobil has the financial capacity here,” said the oil-and-gas giant’s lawyer on Wednesday, perhaps the only indisputable assertion made during a Planning Commission hearing full of conflicting information. What was under consideration was whether the County of Santa Barbara would approve the sale of the pipeline that ruptured and caused 2015’s Refugio Oil Spill.
Plains All American Pipeline, which had been found negligent and paid a $60 million settlement, was selling the pipeline to Pacific Pipeline Company, a company under Exxon’s “umbrella.” ExxonMobil was giving a financial guarantee of $100 million against any “incidents associated with the pipeline system,” the staff report stated.
It’s a drop in the bucket for a company worth $426 billion and in the Fortune 5, as its attorney Dawn Sestito pointed out. And it was convincing to three of the four planning commissioners present, who voted to approve the transfer 3 to 1.
