While the City Council on Monday night unanimously and undramatically approved a resolution to start shaping and finalizing the Specific Plan for Culver City’s small slice of the Inglewood Oil Field, it delayed a decision on funding the group that will conduct the environmental impact review.
Fracking activists may congratulate themselves for causing the postponement.
The staff recommendation to fund Aspen Environmental Group at a rate of $350,000 was put aside because anti-fracking activists charged that the Council had failed to provide copies of Aspen’s contract with the city for public review.
They said the city had failed to post for public review the written comments that were filed in response to the Discussion Draft when it was originally released.
Aspen’s technical credibility was challenged by several public speakers.
The Council directed staff to post the Aspen contract and all comments received over the next week. At its next meeting, Monday, July 14, the Council will determine whether to fund Aspen after obtaining additional information regarding the scope of Aspen’s services. During the intervening weeks, the city will post information regarding Aspen on the city website.
Repeatedly, both Council members and the city staff stressed that the only question to be addressed was whether to initiate a Specific Plan. They made it clear that the vote had nothing to do with fracking, sometimes called hydraulic fracturing. Most of the nine public comments focused on fracking.
The West Angeles Sierra Club presented a resolution that called upon the city to adopt a ban on surface drilling, all hydraulic fracturing and well stimulation activity as part of their Specific Plan.
City Atty. Carol Schwab said the city’s intention was to create its own unique regulatory template.
Curiously, no one asked the policy question as to whether it makes sense to create regulations for 10 percent of an oil field that differ significantly from the regulations governing the other 90 percent.
Ms. Schwab acknowledged that if the city were to ban or restrict certain activities that could be argued were under another jurisdiction, legal challenges could be brought against the city. She cited other jurisdictions that were considering similar bans.
One speaker, who identified herself as Jane Brockman, equated fighting the oil industry to be as important as fighting the Third Reich.
Activist Suzanne DeBenedittis was permitted to show a 30-second video from a website called www.exxonhatesyourchildren.com
Council members spoke at length about cost recovery for the new permitting effort. Mayor Meghan Salhi-Wells asked whether the city would be able to recover expenses if they ultimately opted never to issue a permit. No discussion was raised whether it was necessary to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in new costs, given the millions that already have been invested by all sides in the existing regulations.
