The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission held eight hearings last year to consider the application by Phillips 66 to build a rail depot for up to 150 tanker car trains through the county each year.
On March 13 and 14 this year the SLO Board of Supervisors was called upon for an appeal hearing of the Planning Commission’s 3-2 denial of that plan, and many of the same local residents, anti-oil protestors and elected officials from the rail corridor North and South, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, Davis, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Jose came out to repeat their concerns.
This time the BOS voted 3-1, to uphold their Planning Commission’s decision.The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission held eight hearings last year to consider the application by Phillips 66 to build a rail depot for up to 150 tanker car trains through the county each year.
On March 13 and 14 this year the SLO Board of Supervisors was called upon for an appeal hearing of the Planning Commission’s 3-2 denial of that plan, and many of the same local residents, anti-oil protestors and elected officials from the rail corridor North and South, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, Davis, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Jose came out to repeat their concerns.
This time the BOS voted 3-1, to uphold their Planning Commission’s decision.
District 1 Supervisor John Peschong, who normally would be chairing the meeting, recused himself, as the Phillips 66 Co. was a client of his before the November 2016 election. Anti-Phillips 66 protestors, gathering for a rally at noon on March 13, therefore focused their attention and public comments on the women remaining on the Board, District 5 Supervisor Debbie Arnold, whose district includes the treacherous Cuesta Pass, and Supervisor Lynn Compton of District 4 where the project would be located.
The strategy to convince one of the more conservative elements of the normally “party line” voting Board to peel off and join District 2 and 3 Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill paid off with the addition of Sup. Compton to form a majority.
While she said she disagreed with the onerous process, and timing of the Planning Commission’s 2016 decision, she backed them because to do otherwise, she said, “would be a vote against the interests” of her own constituents.
Neighbors of the project site have been organized in opposition under the banner Mesa Refinery Watch Group for the last three years.
That group was repeatedly thanked for their efforts at the March 13 rally, and march on sidewalks through the City of SLO Downtown, by speakers including City of SLO Mayor Heidi Harmon and District 24 Congressional Rep. Salud Carbajal.
“Your leaders have the chance to do the right thing this week,” said Rep. Carbajal in front of a crowd of 100 gathered on the lawn of San Luis Obispo Superior Court Annex, “to stop this oil development in it’s tracks – if you’ll pardon the pun.”
Harmon, who spoke at the last rally in 2016 as an activist and organizer and addressed them this time as Mayor, added, “Look at what’s possible. Anyone here holding a sign could be in City Hall, or the Governor’s Mansion or even soon the White House. The time to move to clean energy is now.”
Her remarks range true for at least one other speaker. Rep. Carbajal appeared as guest at the Feb 2016 rally as a candidate as well.
Official endorsers of the rally s included: the Sierra Club Santa Lucia Chapter, ECOSLO, California Nurses Association, the Center for Biological Diversity, the SLO Surfrider Foundation, Stand.earth, Protect Price Canyon, SLO Clean Energy, SLO350.org, and the SLO County Democratic Party.
As of press time Phillips 66 had not released a statement indicating whether they would cancel further crude-by-rail plans. They do have the option to appeal to the California Coastal Commission or even sue the County.
However, the San Luis Obispo Superior Court recently ruled against the company’s effort to outmaneuver the Planning Commission process on legal grounds ahead of the Board of Supervisors hearings.
Story and Photos By Camas Frank
