Videos From Oil EIR Scoping Meeting on July 24

The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process has begun for the E&B oil production project proposed to be located in Hermosa Beach. This project is ultimately to be voted up or down by Hermosa voters sometime in the year 2014. The vote is to be had as a result of a settlement agreement made between the city and Macpherson Oil that supposedly ended the lawsuit brought against the city by the Macpherson Oil company as a result of the city’s ban on oil drilling that was voted by the people.

On Wednesday evening, July 24, an EIR “scoping” meeting, as part of the EIR process for E&B’s proposed oil-drilling, was held in Hermosa’s Community Center Theater with several hundred participants hearing a presentation of the EIR process, and then adding their “scope” of the EIR comments.

The city made a video recording and also a transcript of that meeting. You may now view the video on the city’s website. It is listed in the website’s video archives as the “E&B EIR Scoping Meeting Parts 1, Part 2, Part 3.   Or use this link to go directly to the video archive page:  or browse to https://www.hermosabch.org/ and then click on “agendas / minutes/videos” on the left side of the home page to arrive at the video-archive page. View the video titled Part 1 first as the three video parts may be displayed in reverse order.

The Hermosa Beach video servers are really bad so don't be surprise if your video viewing is choppy.  There are a lot of people interested in the topic and viewing the video.  Please be patient.  Sometimes the video works better using the browsers Firefox and Explorer.  Chrome does not work well.

You have until Monday, Aug. 12, to submit additional comments regarding concerns you desire to be included in the “scope” of the EIR. Submit those comments to the city by email (krobertson@hermosabch.org) or hand deliver them to Ken Robertson, Director of Community Development, city of Hermosa Beach.

We will be going through this video over the next few weeks and will publish highlights below. 

Capped Oil Wells Beneath Homes & Ocean Can Blowout

Capped Oil Wells That Could Blowout in Redondo Beach & Hermosa Beach

Capped oil wells are a real danger in the South Bay.  Pat Aust the Redondo Beach City Councilman and former firefighter knows first hand of the dangers.  Hermosa Beach has a handful of capped wells and some are out in the Ocean as you can see.  However, Redondo Beach has hundreds of them underneath homes and Manhattan Beach has plugged oil wells at Mira Costa High School.  Here is an explanation to help you understand the potential threat to our community if slant hydraulic pressurized oil drilling is permitted underground.

Oil drilling blowout preventers (BOPs) can be used on the drilling site itself on the surface to mitigate risk.  However, blowout preventers CANNOT be used on capped wells or adjacent wells underground & in the Ocean.   If an adjacent capped oil well were to blow on the ocean seabed it would cause a massive oil spill and mess on up and down the coast.  The ocena seabed well could be capped but would required significant emergency effort (like the BP Spill in the Gulf) and would change the integrity of life in the South Bay as we know it.  If an adjacent capped oil were to blow underground beneath homes.  Lives and homes could be lost because an explosion is highly likely.  Residents in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach who own homes over a capped underground well would never know about the problem until it is too late.  Do we really want to trust the that the integrity of the well was capped properly 30 or 40 years ago?

Crude oil is a flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Because hydrocarbons and gas are lighter than rock or water, they often migrate upward through adjacent rock layers until either reaching the surface or becoming trapped within porous rocks (known as reservoirs) by impermeable rocks above. However, the process is influenced by underground water flows, causing oil to migrate hundreds of kilometres horizontally or even short distances downward before becoming trapped in a reservoir. When hydrocarbons are concentrated in a trap, an oil field forms, from which the liquid can be extracted by drilling and pumping at high pressure. The down hole pressures experienced at the rock structures change depending upon the depth and the characteristic of the source rock.  The deeper the well the more risky the operation.  E&B is proposing deep wells.

Blowouts happen all the time and are daily occurrence in the oil industry.  Don't convince yourself it can't happen here because Steve Layton knows too well from his Blowout in Louisiana which bankrupted Equinox Oil.

Here is another conclusion that supports this argument from the Coastal Commission.

Matt Damon Promised Land Movie Review

We attended the advanced screening of the Promised Land movie on Tuesday, December 11 in Hollywood and here is our review.

Promised Land is one of the most informative & entertaining movies about real life and local economics in the United States today.  Just when you think you understand all of the characters in the movie there is a big twist to the story at the end.  The twist to the story at the end of the movie will make you question every source and quote you hear in the media and from City Council promoting oil and gas revenue benefits and jobs.

Here are some oxymoron examples our City Council is currently using in Hermosa Beach "environmentally safe oil drilling" and "carbon neutral".   These hypocritical marketing buzz words should make you question the agenda of City Council and why they are unwilling to hold a public debate on the oil drilling issue.  

The movie also shows you how divisive money and oil can be on a community.  It tears apart a small town that lacks intelligent political leadership and shows you the hidden corruption oil companies use to influence politicians.  Just like Hermosa Beach, there are hardly any educated people doing research or who understand the risks of doing oil drilling so close to homes.  In the movie a professor eloquently presents the risk factors of drilling to an audience at a public debate and turns the tide the oil drilling project.

The movie also shows you that our politicians have their priorities in the wrong place and should be thinking about our health and safety first before creating jobs.  Not surprising a politician is willing to say anything for some cash presented and favors.

It makes you wonder why the Hermosa Beach City Council is under a confidentiality agreement (page 4) and never presented the settlement agreement in a public forum for debate.  Sounds pretty corrupt and suspicious to me.  

Some critic lobbying groups have tried to discredit the movie by saying Middle East OPEC money has financed the movie  . . .

After all, the movie "is financed in part" by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an OPEC member country.   

This is a stupid argument since 47% of the 27,000 fracked wells in the United States were for oil and 53% were for gas.  Fracking is not just about gas.  See DrillingMaps.com database for more details on fracking locations in US.

Please like Promised Land movie on Facebook.

Here is the the Promised Land Movie Trailer. 

Here is some ridiculous propaganda trying to taint the movie claiming a conspiracy about Middle East oil money is behind the movie exposed fracking to promote oil.  Excuse me . . . but there minority investments of Middle East oil money in just about every company in the United States and these claims are ridiculous   For Matt Damon to claim he didn't know where some of the money came from is completely legitimate.  

Josh Fox of Gasland discusses his view on the film about the oil and gas industry taking away and exploiting what we have work so hard to build.

Fracking in California Can Induce More Earthquakes

Josh Fox of Gas Land Movie reveals unregulated fracking going on in Los Angeles, California and could cause a major earthquakes in the near future.  The USGS is studying the relationship to fracking but regulation still seems a long ways off.  Oil and gas companies are not required to disclose fracking even though hundreds of wells in Southern Califoria have and are currently being fracked.

In Oklahoma , Arkansas, and in Ohio, earthquakes shake the ground and rattle nerves. But these quakes are not the work of mother nature. The USGS says a controversial oil production method called "fracking" is responsible for triggering them

Fracking is a drilling method where highly pressurized water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals are injected miles into the ground to shatter the rock, which allows the oil and gas to escape. A critical part of this process is getting rid of millions of gallons of waste water. A common way to do that is to re-inject it back into the earth. And that's what can trigger an earthquake. E&B will tell you they are not doing the controversial "hydraulic fracking" but won't be specific on how their technique differs from the above.  Do we want to take this risk?  

Oil Companies Do NOT have to Disclose Fracking Sites in CA

Fracking is Still Highly Unregulated in California
See the Fracking Health Dangers of Gas Here


Baldwin Hills Oil Sink Hole in 1963 See (6 min 25 seconds)
Pressurized Oil Extraction Wells Caused This

Hydraulic Fracking Diagram

California Fracking Unregulated

E&B Oil Reveals Hydraulic Pumping Will Be Used

E&B further explains their hydraulic fracking technique using 27 oil wells and 3 water injection wells. The drilling rig will be 87 feet tall and will be temporarily on site for four months before it is removed. During that four month period three exploratory wells and one water injection well will be drilled. This will allow us to analyze the quality, along with the rate and flow, and other important factors of the produced oil, gas and water.

Pressurized Hydraulic Oil Extraction Wells Caused This
Redondo Beach Wins $2.5M Law Suit From Oil Companies in 1997

Eight oil companies named in the lawsuit were required to replace the oil they had taken with pressurized water. He said that because they did not, the surface under the water sank up to four feet in some areas. The subsidence led the breakwater to sink four feet below its designed height of 22 feet, Goddard said, and caused storm-generated waves to crash over the protective wall. He said the storm caused more than $8 million in damage to local businesses, a cost absorbed by the city. Several major oil companies were named in the suit, including Texaco, Exxon, Trident and Phillips Petroleum, Goddard said. 

What Does the California Coastal Commission Do?

In 1972, alarmed that private development was cutting off public access to the shore, Californians rallied to “Save Our Coast.” They declared by voter initiative that “it is the policy of the State to preserve, protect, and where possible, to restore the resources of the coastal zone for the enjoyment of the current and succeeding generations.” The initiative created the California Coastal Commission to make land use decisions in the Coastal Zone while additional planning occurred.

In 1976, the Legislature enacted the California Coastal Act, which established a farreaching coastal protection program and made permanent the California Coastal Commission as it exists today. The Commission plans and regulates development and natural resource use along the coast in partnership with local governments and in keeping with the requirements of the Coastal Act.

What does the California Coastal Commission do? The Commission’s authority under the Coastal Act is comprehensive. The Commission makes coastal development permit decisions and reviews local coastal programs Local Coastal Programs (LCPs) prepared by local governments and submitted for Commission approval. It also reviews federal activities that affect the Coastal Zone.

What is Hermosa Beach's Coastal Zone? Our Coastal Zone reaches from three miles our to sea and stretches to an inland boundary. This zone applies to anything above the surface of the ground and below.

Does the Commission have authority over oil and gas development?  Yes. The Commission has permitting jurisdiction over all oil and gas development within the State’s three-mile range.

What standards does the Commission use in its permit and land use planning decisions?
The Commission carries out Coastal Act policies, which seek to:

• Provide for environmentally sound expansion of industrial ports and electric power plants and for siting of coastal dependent industries.
• Protect against loss of life and property from coastal hazards
• Protect and expand public shoreline access and recreational opportunities
• Protect scenic landscapes and views of the sea
• Establish stable urban-rural boundaries and guide new development into areas with adequate services

Who are the Coastal Commission members? 
The California Coastal Commission has 12 voting members and 3 non-voting members. Southern California representatives include:  Elected to Coastal Commission in 1997 Brian Brennan (Ventura City Council and former President of Surfrider Foundation) Richard Bloom (Santa Monica City Council).  Read here other bios of Coastal Commissioners.  Watch this video with Brian Brennan and learn about his history and environmental sustainability priorities.




Local District Offices
South Coast Los Angeles - 200 Oceangate, 10th Floor Long Beach, CA 90802 (562) 590-5071

Earthquakes From Drilling?

Ohio Earthquakes Linked to Natural Gas Drilling 

Read the LA Times Article

Enjoy this recent CBS News Story

One of the environmental impacts that we feel has not, was not adequately addressed initially and certainly now needs to be re-addressed, is the issue of earthquake hazards. And we have a declaration from Dr. David Jackson who's on the National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. David Jackson who's on the National Academy of Sciences. He is a respected geophysicist, was a professor at UCLA. He is on the California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council. And he said that the reinjection of water into the Hermosa Beach site, well the reinjection of water into any site will increase the likelihood of risk of earthquakes based upon an L.A. Times article and other studies that have come out recently about the fact that. Northridge has increased the risk of earthquakes in our basin. Read the State Lands Commission testimony transcript which he predicted in 1994 and its coming true in place like Ohio.

We are very concerned about the impact upon the oil and a as sanctuary in the Santa Monica Bay. Pipelines will go into the bay but could rupture in case of an earthquake. We're saving on the earthquake issue it wasn't properly considered by the by the city and now there's new information.  New studies indicate water re-injection increases the likelihood of earthquakes.