GOO Blog
8/15/12 It's 2012...Do You Know Where The Frackers Are?
The answer is that the frackers are everywhere. Better yet, the frackers are right next door and injecting all manner of bizarre toxic chemicals into the ground here in California...without disclosure. LA TIMES UPDATE.
8/10/12 Thank You Selma!
The Great Selma Ruben passed on this week, but her legacy will not be forgotten. Selma was one of the founders of Get Oil Out! and a tireless member and supporter of more causes than most people could even name from memory. GOO is deeply saddened at the loss of this titan of social and environmental justice, but our grief is tempered with profound gratitude that we had one, such as Selma, with us for 97 years. May her passing inspire the next generation of leaders to rise up to the challenge with the kind of courage, persistance and vision that she embodied for all these years.
7/1/11 The Frackers Are Coming!--HEARING AUGUST 2nd!
Venoco Inc. was sited by SB County in June 2011 for Fracking in Santa Barbara County without a permit. As incredible as this may seem, Venoco has been injecting hundreds of unspecified chemicals into the ground in the Los Alamos area and using over a quarter of a million gallons of fresh water. This in a valley that boasts a Billion dollar agricultural economy, primarily based on strawberries and grapes...where the entire water supply comes from local aquifers. GOO has been working to educate Californians about the dangers of fracking. We sponsored a free showing of GASLAND THE MOVIE in January, but now the time has come for action! The was a hearing at the County Board of Supervisors on June 7th. GOO was there to fight to stop fracking in SB County. We need your help. There will be another hearing on August 2nd at the SB County Board of Supervisors. Please help us to protect Santa Barbara County's water supply. We need volunteers to attend this meeting and to help raise money for the major legal battle to come. If you care about clean drinking water, please CONTACT US to help protect yours!
8/1/10 BP's use of dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico, "Corexit" in particular, is a gigantic experiment in toxicification of an ocean ecosystem. In their effort to hide the spill from cameras, BP drove the spilled oil underwater with toxic chemicals--over a million gallons worth. Corexit is bio-accumulating toxic agent which will be present in the food chain for many years to come. This approach to oil spills is unacceptable and needs to be banned by the EPA immediately. READ MORE--WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE
7/29/10 Local Filmmaker Mike deGruy documents the Gulf Oil Spill SB INDEPENDENT ARTICLE
7/28/10 GOO SAYS NO TO RIGS TO REEF BILL IN CA ASSEMBLY:
Get Oil Out opposes letting the oil companies fail to clean up their mess---and to transfer liability to California taxpayers for that mess. READ OUR NO ON AB 2503 LETTER (PDF)
7/27/10 Another Oil Spill in SB County? Say it isn't so! OIL SPILL
Electric Cars Anyone? Here is the status of the Volt VOLT LATIMES
7/25/10 Oil money has polluted more than our ecosystems. It has polluted our political system. We support Oil Change International's call for the Separation of Oil and State. We find it hard to belive that blood and filth soaked oil money is somehow considered "free speech" in our political system. We believe it is time to protect ourselves from the oil spill in our political ecosystem and to begin to clean up this mess as soon as possible. LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW AND WHY TO SEPARATE OIL AND STATE
7/24/10 In case you are wondering why GOO has consistently asserted that the oil companies can not be trusted to operate safely in our oceans...this is another clear example of why: LA TIMES: BP DISABLED SAFETY SYSTEMS.
In other news: there is an interesting documentary out that is worth taking a look at before you buy your next tank of gas from Chevron (if you are boycotting BP--or not). The movie is called "Crude" and it is about the decade long fight for justice in the Equadorian Amazon, where the people have been poisoned by petroleum development and are struggling to get help. This is just another reason that we need to quit this poisonous addiction to oil: CRUDE_THE DOCUMENTARY.
7/23/10 OK. So BP didn't really have the safety alarms turned on because they needed their beauty rest...This is your taxpayer supported government oversight from MMS and the EPA at work...for who? NY TIMES: "ALARMS NOT FULLY TURNED ON."
7/22/10 If you have heard the oil companies tell you drilling is completely safe...here's one for you: ...how about this link to an explanation regarging BP's 760 safety violations over the last 3 years.
7-21-10 GOO, like most Americans, was grief stricken by the Gulf Oil Spill.
Unlike most Americans, we didn't just blame BP.
This problem starts and ends with each of us. Our personal addictions to Oil are poisining the environment. Our addiction is the sickness--the spill is merely a symptom.
Until we are willing to change ourselves we will be unable to change BP or Exxon, the Minerals Management Service or our Country.
We have re-committed ourselves to the task of getting over oil in our daily lives.
This is extremely difficult, because everyone is addicted and most people belive that there is no alternative.
There are currently no formal 12 step programs for Oil Addiction Treatment.
We are creating one now. We are the guinnea pigs and we will start the process of figuring this out.
If this is something that interests you, then contact us. Our president, Abe Powell, is spearheading GOO's new Petroleum Addiction Rehabilitation Therapy program (PART). We know we are all part of the problem. Now is the time to become PART of solution.
Join Us. ---Lead Us, Follow Us or please just get out of the way.
The time to change is now.
The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective
Posted by GOO
Keith
C.
Clarke,
Professor
and
Chair
Jeffrey
J.
Hemphill,
Graduate
Student
Department
of
Geography
University
of
California,
Santa
Barbara
Santa
Barbara,
CA
93106
kclarke@geog.ucsb.edu,
jeff@geog.ucsb.edu
The
year
was
1969,
a
momentous
year
for
the
nation
and
the
world.
At
the
movie
theater,
Easy
Rider
and
Butch
Cassidy
and
the
Sundance
Kid
were
playing.
A
new
generation
converged
on
Yasgur
...
1969 Oil Spill
Posted by GOO
On the afternoon of January 28, 1969, an environmental nightmare began in Santa Barbara, California. A Union Oil Co. platform stationed six miles off the coast of Summerland suffered a blowout. Oil workers had drilled a well down 3500 feet below the ocean floor. Riggers began to retrieve the pipe in order to replace a drill bit when the "mud" ...
