On Wednesday, strong opinions and personal stories punctuated a discussion about getting oil and gas out of Santa Barbara County.
The county Planning Commission considered ordinances to ban new onshore oil and gas wells and phase out old wells, after the Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead in October 2025. The commission voted 3-2 in favor of amendments to local land-use ordinances to effectively flatline the onshore oil industry in the county.
It’s the most viable and least resource-intensive option to reduce the county’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to county staff…