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Is battle over oil drilling all but over?
by Robb Fulcher
Courtroom opponents of an oil man who wants to drill in the Hermosa Beach city maintenance yard differed this week on whether a state appeals court decision signals the inevitable end of the project.
Rosamond Fogg of the Hermosa Beach Stop Oil Coalition said the appeals court decision, which upheld a 1995 ballot measure banning oil drilling in Hermosa, ends the possibility of a 30-year slant-drilling operation in the city yard at Sixth Street and Valley Drive.
"There will be things left to do [in court], but the outcome is no longer in doubt. The project will not be able to go forward," Fogg said on Tuesday.
"I think it’s a matter of months before the loose ends all get cleared up," she said.
If Macpherson Oil Company of Santa Monica seeks to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court, Fogg said such a move would likely fail.
Macpherson Oil also is involved in a separate lawsuit against the city of Hermosa Beach, claiming breach of contract in the oil dispute. But Fogg said the sweeping appeals court decision deals a devastating blow to all of Macpherson’s legal arguments.
Macpherson Oil Company officials were unavailable for comment this week.
Hermosa Beach City Attorney Michael Jenkins was not as optimistic as Fogg. He said that the appeals court gave Stop Oil a clear victory, but also left the door open for further legal action by Macpherson.
Jenkins pointed out that the decision by the three-judge appeals court panel did not touch on Macpherson’s breach-of-contract arguments.
"The status of that situation is somewhat uncertain," Jenkins said.
He also said the courtroom decision leaves open the possibility that Macpherson could secure financial damages from the city.
On the subject of an appeal, Jenkins said he does not know how Macpherson would fare if the company brings its case to the state’s highest court.
"It’s an interesting area of law that has not gotten a lot of attention from the courts," Jenkins said.
The appeals court last week ruled that Hermosa voters had the legal right to halt the oil project when they approved Proposition E in 1995, banning all oil drilling in the city.
Macpherson held an oil-drilling lease with the city at the time, and argued that Proposition E violated the company’s constitutional right to its existing contract.
Oily past
The city’s oil saga covers more than six decades. Long before Proposition E came to pass, Hermosa voters approved a ban on all oil and gas operations within the city in 1932.
Then in 1984, to generate funds to help buy the greenbelt parkway that runs through the city, voters approved Propositions P and Q, two city council-sponsored ballot measures allowing oil drilling at the maintenance yard and at a site owned by the Hermosa Beach City School District.
In 1985 the city council established a formal permit system to allow drilling "in a manner that protects the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Hermosa Beach."
In June 1986, city officials looked for oil companies that might want to drill. Macpherson, which had been a leading force in placing the 1984 ballot measures before the voters, was the only company to respond. In January 1992 the city council approved a lease allowing Macpherson to slant drill from the maintenance yard, going underground at an angle to try to tap into oil reserves off the city’s shore.
The lease, and a permit issued by the city, authorized Macpherson to build a 135-foot high oil derrick, as tall as a 15-story building, which would be used for about four years for an exploratory and initial drilling phase. Then oil rigs as tall as 110 feet would be allowed to operate as much as 90 days a year for 35 years. A pipeline would be built to carry crude oil from the Hermosa site to a refinery outside the city.
Hermosa Beach Stop Oil Coalition, Santa Monica Baykeeper and American Oceans Campaign filed suit to block the drilling project. In April 1994 Stop Oil began the campaign to qualify Measure E for the ballot, pushing for a citywide ban on oil drilling, including the maintenance yard and school district property.
In November 1995 Proposition E was approved with 56 percent of the vote, 2,505 voting in favor of the measure and 1,940 voting against it.
In April 1997 Stop Oil filed a lawsuit to make the city enforce Proposition E and halt the Macpherson project. ER