The California State lands commission dilemma
by The Sportfishing Conservancy 3 Jan 2024 09:11 PST
The California State lands commission dilemma © The Sportfishing Conservancy
In 2024 offshore oil platform decommissioning is coming to the Santa Barbara Channel and this long-awaited process will start with California state owned Platform Holly.
The California State lands Commission (SLC) is in charge of this platform decommissioning, has completed the removal of onshore facilities (see ceremony picture above*). They have completed plug and abandon of Holly's wells and are now set to proceed on platform removal. However, the SLC has not made a final determination on whether to fully remove or partially remove the offshore structure. Given the years of peer reviewed scientific research, partial decommissioning offers the best environmental alternative by a wide margin, however, the local political climate still presses for full removal.
The Newsom quandary - the dilemma facing California: first, under current law, if the state proceeds with partial decommissioning the platform owner would be required to deposit 85% of the savings achieved over full removal into an independent "ocean trust" fund. As the present owner of Holly, would California contribute to the fund?
Further, if the California does in fact move forward with partial decommissioning as currently mandated and given the required research, permitting and uncertainty this entails, it clearly becomes a prohibitively more expensive option than full removal. California is now looking at the same question facing the other platform owners. Despite being the least environmentally friendly option and while appearing quite the contrary to an untrained eye, full removal would be the more fiscally responsible option. That's right, today, taking offshore platforms completely out would actually cost far less, making partial decommissioning MORE expensive than full removal!
It is time for California to re-visit the reefing option and get this right!
* note that in the above picture, a fully permitted, partially decommissioned and augmented oil production project is visible offshore in the background behind assembled SLC and local political interests celebrating Holly progress on the beach in 2023.