Pacific Outer Continental Shelf Region

San Luis Obispo County: A Major

'....I VV I L%JI iii J i,itr'hinn

Final Report

U.S. Department of the Interior

Minerals Management Service

Pacific OCS Region

OCS Study

MMS 96-0037

Pacific Outer Continental Shelf Region

OCS Study

MMS 96-0037

San Luis Obispo County: A Major

VVI LUL iiiiy

Final Report

Edited by:

Leonard Nevarez, Marine Science Institute, UCSB

Harvey Molotch, Marine Science Institute, UCSB

William Freudenburg, Department of Rural Sociology,

University of Wisconsin

Madison, WI 53706

Research Assistants and Associated Authors

Krista Paulsen, Jane Ward, Hugh Louch

Sally Knight, Dawnel Moreno, Judith Taylor

Submitted by:

Ocean and Coastal Policy Center

Marine Science Institute

University of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

For:

U.S. Department of the Interior

Minerals Management Service

Pacific OCS Region

770 Paseo Camarillo

Camarillo, CA 93010

Under Contract No. 14-35-0001-30663

Minerals Management Service

Pacific OCS Region July 199

DISCLAIMER

This report has been reviewed by the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf Region, Minerals

Management Service, U.S. Department of the Interior and approved for publicatiom The

opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the

authors, and do not necesarily reflect the views of the Minerals Management Service. Mention of

trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

This report has not been edited for conformity with Minerals Management Service editorial

standards.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments iv

Summary v

Introduction 1

I. Before the Yankees and Before World War I 6

The Southern Parific blazes a trail - - 7

Oil speculation begins onshore 9

[1. Between the Wars (1914-1945) 17

Union Oil during and after the Great War 20

Uneven growth in the county 24

Onshore oil exploration continues 25

Beginnings of a major switching 26

Wnrld Wir IT 29

111 Postwar Era (1945-68) 31

Oil in the county: New developments, diminishing presence 36

Tourism, public employment hit full stride 39

Cal Polys influence 40

The Mission Plaza 42

Ramblings of offshore oil exploration 45

IV. The Environmental Era (1969-present) 47

Contemporary San Luis Obispo County: A profile 50

Retirement communities 51

Tourist towns 51

Working-class towns 56

Middle-class suburbs 60

San Luis Obispo 62

The Diablo Canyon controversy 65

County newspapers in the environmental era 67

Non-profits in the county 71

The history of oil protest in San Luis Obispo County 75

The effect of the Santa Barbara oil spill 75

Early anti-oil protest: The Central Coast supertanker

port proposal 77

Staying ahead of the issues: The Rattlesnake Canyon

LNG terminal proposal 81

Federal OCS Lease Sale 53 82

San Luis Obispo Countys anti-oil movement gathers strength 85

Measure A: And-offshore oil sentiment reaches

its pinnacle
Platform Julius revisited 89

Oil spills eclipse the industry's record as

"good neighbors" 94

Conclusion: The San Luis Obispo County Factors 97

SLO's "quality of life" 97

CaJ.Poly 98

Nonextractive economy 99

The record of oil - including nearby precedents 100

Environmentalist media 101

Prospects for the future 102

Appendix A: Sari Lriis Obispo County Timeline 103

Appendix B: Federal OCS Lease Sale 53 -- a case study 114

References 122

List of those consulted or interviewed 127

LIST OF MAPS

Map 1. San Luis Obispo County

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. County sociodemographic characteristics, 1890-1920 6

Table 2. Ratio of county population to number of farms,

1890-1920 6

Table 3. County sociodemographic characteristics,

1910-1940 17

Table 4. Ratio of county population to number of farms,

1910-1940 17

Table 5. County sociodemographic characteristics,

1940-1970 31

Table 6. County employment by occupation, 1940-1970 32

Table 7. Ratio of county population to number of farms,

1940-1970 32

Table 8. Tourism employment as percentage of labor force,

1950-1970 34

Table 9. County sociodemographic characteristics, 1960-1990 47

Table 10. County employment by occupation, 1960-1990 48

Table 11. Ratio of county population to number of farms,

1960-1990 48

Table 12. County registration in political parties 50

ii
iii

Table 13. Adults 65+ years old as percentage of total population,

1970-1990 51.

Table 14. Tourism employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 53

Table 15 Median housing values, 19704990 56

Table 16. Unemployed as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 57

Table 17. Adults age 25+ with B.A. degree as percentage of total

population, 1970-1990 58

Table 18. Gover.nment employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990....... 61

Table 19. Education employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 63

Table 20. Median one-way commute times for workers, 1970-1990 64

Table 21. 1972 Coastal Zone Conservation Act results 76

Table 22. Measure A (1986) election results 89

Table 23. Platform Julius referenda results 91

Table 24. Property taxes on oil and gas mineral rights 94

Table 25. Proportions of comments and themes regarding

Lease Sale 53 in San Luis Obispo County 120

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1. San Luis Obispo County population, 1920-1950 19

Chart 2. San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1919-1945 23

Chart 3. San Luis Obispo County population, 1940-1970 33

Chart 4. The extract/intact ratio:

San Luis Obispo County compared to state and region - - 35

Chart 5. San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1945-1968 38

Chart 6. San Luis Obispo County Population, 1960-1990 49

Chart 7. Cal Poly residential areas as percentages of employees 64

Chart 8. Organizational density of tn-counties 72

Chart 9. Arts and cultural organizations in tn-county communities 73

Chart 10. Health and human services organizations in

tn-county communities 74

Chart 11. San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1969-1992 78

LIST OF PHOTOS

Photo 1. City of San Luis Obispo 4

Photo 2. Cilport refinery (1909) 11

Photo 3. Avila (1910) 11

Photo 4. Oil drilling in the Edna Valley (1910) 16

Photo 5. San Luis Obispo oil tank farm fire 22

Photo 6. San Luis Obispo Mission Plaza 44

Photo 7. City of Pismo Beach 55
Acknowledgments

This study would not have been possible without the generous contributions of

many persons, particularly the many who allowed us to interview them or

provided us with information (they are listed at the end of this report). We also

acknowledge the continuous support from our associated faculty researchers at the

University of California, Santa Barbara:

Otis Graham, Professor of History

Elvin Hatch, Professor of Anthropology

Randolph Bergstrom, Associate Professor of History

We were well served by careful advice provided by members of our Quality Review

Board:

Howard Becker, Professor of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle;

Arthur McEvoy, Professor of Law and History, University of Wisconsin,

Madison;

Roy Rappaport, Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Daniel Krieger (Professor of History, Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo) read prior

drafts of this report, providing many detailed comments and directing us to helpful

sources.

James Limas earlier research on offshore oil development provided us with a

wealth of information. Darwin Sainz was especially generous with his time and

extensive knowledge of North County life.

John Woolley and Eric Smith, faculty colleagues at the University of California,

Santa Barbara, provided useful advice as did colleagues at the Applied Population

Research Laboratory, University of Wisconsin; the Wisconsin State Historical

Society; and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the

University of Michigan.

Excellent research assistance was provided at the University of Wisconsin by Jessica

Goldberger (who was especially dedicated), as well as by James Elliott, James

Gonzales, Steven Martin, Tarique Niazi, Michael Spittel, and Rolando Sosa. At the

University of California, Santa Barbara, we are indebted to the research assistance

provided by Thomas Beamish, Elisabeth Jordan, Jeff Olin, John Rodgers, Jacqueline

Romo, and Beverly Schwartzberg.

iv
vi

ACCESS NTJMBER.: 30663

STUDY TITLE: "Social, Economic, and Historic Characterization of San Luis Obispo,

Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties.'

REPORT III LE "San Luis Obispo County A Major Switchmg"

CONTRACT NUMBER(S) MMS 14-35-0001-30663

SPONSORIING REGION: Pacific

APPUCABLE PLANNING AREA(S): Southern California

FISCAL YEAR(S) OF PROJECT FUNDING 1994, 1995, 1996

COMPLETION DALE OF REPORT October 1, 1996

COST(S FYi 5175906 F12 5112286 FY3 5127018

CUMIJLATIVE PROJECT COST: $415,210.

PROJECT AGER(S): H. Molotch

AFFILIATION: Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, Marine Science Institute, University

of California, Santa Barbara.

ADDRESS: University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: H. Molotch (PT), W. Freudenbu.rg (Co-PI).

KEY WORDS: San Luis Obispo; Central California; oil development; socioeconomic;

local history; place character; voluntary associations; tourism; Unocal;

environmentalism; media; California Polytechnic University; Diablo Canyon.

BACKGROUND: MMS requested a historic analysis of three Calif on da Coastal

counties in terms of how their individual 'character' evolved over the generations in

relation to the oil industry. This report on San Luis Obispo Count is one of three

volumes produced in response; the other two reports consist of one pertaining to Santa

Barbara County ("Santa Barbara County: Two Roads') and Ventura County ("Ventura

County: Oil, Fruit, Commune and Commute"). There is also a data base on diskette

simultaneously provided which contains a large assemblage of socioeconomic data on

each county and its constituent cities. Drafts of scholarly papers are also being

provided (see Study Products below).
OBJECTiVES: The objectives of this report are: (1) Explain how the county

and its major communities came to have particular economic and cultural

configurations making them more or less accepting of oil development, OCS

development in particular; (2) Analyze the way different factors (e.g.

migration, industrial development, political change) intersected with one

another over time; (3) Indicate how these factors differed from one local

community to another; (4) Provide a Timeline of important local events,

including those involving the oil industry; (5) Display both quantitative and

qualitative indicators of the evidence for the conclusions reached; (6) Provide

a data base on diskette (supplied separately) that contains the data base upon

which this analysis was based and which can be used for future EIR/EISs and

other analytic exercises.

DESCRIPTION: We used a multi-method strategy. We carried out 70

interviews with local officials, industry personnel, community leaders, and

other strategic persons to construct past events and develop leads to

appropriate documents and data sets. Census and other data sources were

used to describe, over time, changes in population size, educational

S A A

4 ULLt L1LC YQiia&Jt. t. VCLLICLy -.1L LcLa UUiL

was used to chart changes in oil production, oil employment, as well as tax

income from the industry. Systematic analysis was undertaken of

participation in environmental hearings and the kinds of issues raised by

different groups. Systematic investigation was also made of local print media

content vis a vis the oil industry at different time points. We also analyzed

the nature of local commi.mityorganizations, developing indicators of their

density of development, resource base, and modes of networking. We

charted public votes on environmental and oil-related issues. Still other

indicators, quantitative and qualitative, were created as a means to

understand the types of orientations and resources that had evolved in the

county.

The analytic strategy was to contrast parts of the county in terms of how the

coming of oil and its variations in form and volume over time intersected

with particular types of evolving social and economic conditions in place. In

this way we can understand why specific communities responded to oil in the

way that they did.

SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS: After an earlier history centered in

agriculture and railway service functions, modern San Luis Obispo County

has been heavily shaped by its institution of higher education, California

Polytechnic University (Cal Poly). Growing from modest beginnings in 1903

as an agricultural and polytechnic school, it has emerged in recent decades as

a significant force in the state and the dominant economic and political

element of its surrounding communities.

vi
In part because of the influence of the university, the city of San Luis Obispo

(the major population and economic center, as well as the county seat),

became a bastion of environmental politics. Despite an earlier county history

of significant oil operations, opposition to oil appears to be a salient unifying

element of the current local consensus. Although towns and settlements in

the northern portion of the county tend to be less aligned with the anti-oil

position, there are few signs of this stance abating in the future.

STUDY RESULTS: After its early history in agriculture and provision of oil

service facilities (primarily pipelines and shipping), the county shifted toward

becoming a significant center of higher education and a bastion of

environmentalism. This process began its momentum beginning in the late

1960s as the area's college of agriculture and technology began major

expansion and diversification. California Polytechnic University, San Luis

Obispo, influences the city and surrounding areas in manifold ways and tends

to build a pervasive environmentalist sentiment. The university's influence

operates through the practical projects its students have developed over the

years, particularly its very large and active School of Architecture. Students,

faculty, and university staff, especially in the city of San Luis Obispo, make up

a large proportion of the electorate; from their ranks, individuals have also

gone on to lead protests against the local nuclear power plant (Diablo Canyon)

and other perceived environmental threats. Alumni now permeate the local

business community and public agencies. Students' parents discover the

charms of the area and select it as a place of retirement. Businesses have

grown out of its faculty's activities.

The skills and tastes of Cal Poly employees, alumni, students, as well as others

attracted to the area add to the quality of San Luis Obispo institutions and

infuse the economic base. That base grows in terms of information

technologies and services to tourists and retirees. Amenity levels are high in

San Luis Obispo, and there is strong self-consciousness and robust civic

participation in local government and a high per capita density of community

organizations.

Even in some politically conservative communities, such as Pismo Beach and

other cities in the so-called "Five Cities" area, opposition to oil is very strong

because of retirees' and tourist business peoples fears of the effects of

unsightly installations or pollution incidents. Demographic changes and

recent publicity of local pollution accidents have further eroded historical

images of oil as benefactor. Except for the north county town of Paso Rob les,

virtually all political jurisdictions have gone an record as opposed to oil

development - a stance supported by county-wide votes of the citizenr.

At hearings related to oil, opposition has been vociferous and related less to

specific concerns about pollution levels or dangers to wildlife, but general

anxieties about the inconsistency of oil with the county's "way of life." The

vii
dominant local newspaper and smaller media as well are stridently anti-oil.

It is hard to find any group of actors in the county who support offshore

drilling or expansion of onshore activity.

Continued expansion of higher education, tourism, design, and information

technology industries will likely cause the oppositional stance to continue

into the future.

STUDY PRODUCT(S): 'San Luis Obispo County: A Major Switching"; "Santa

Barbara County: Two Paths"; "Ventura County: Oil, Fruit, Commune and

Commute"; Freudenburg, William R., James Elliott, Jessica Goldberger, and

Steven Martin. 19%. "Attitudes toward Environmental Preservation at the

Community Level: A Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative

Approaches"; Paulsen, Krista, 1996. "Local Response to Offshore Leasing

Proposals: How Media Enhance Participation"; Freudenburg, William and

Jessica Coldberger, and Michael Spittel, "County-Level Database and PlaceLevel Database" (Set of three Diskettes).
DISCLAiMER

This report has been reviewed by the Pacific Outer Continental ShelfRegion, Minerals

Management Service, U.S. Department of the Interior and approved for publication. The

opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the

authors, and do not necesarily reflect the views of the Minerals Management Service. Mention of

trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

This report has not been edited for conformity with Minerals Management Service editorial

standards.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments iv

Summary v

Introduction 1

r V.L-.. -.--- 'EAT AT I

i. Oti LU e . ry ar . - The Southern Pacific blazes a trail 7

Oil speculation begins onshore 9

Ii Between the Wars (1914-1945) 17

Union Oil during and after the Great War 20

Uneven growth in the county 24

Onshore oil exploration continues 25

Beginnings of a major switching 26

World War II 29

ff1. Postwar Era (1945-68) 31

Oil in the county: New developments, diminishing presence 36

Tourism, public employment hit full stride 39

Cal Polys influence 40

The Mission Plaza 42

Ramblings of offshore oil exploration 45

[V. The Environmental Era (2969-present) 47

Contemporary San Luis Obispo County: A profile 50

Retirement communities 51

Tourist towns 51

Working-class towns 56

Middle-class suburbs 60

San Luis Obispo 62

The Diablo Canyon controversy 65

County newspapers in the environmental era 67

Non-profits in the county 71

The history of oil protest in San Luis Obispo County 75

The effect of the Santa Barbara oil spill 75

Early anti-oil protest: The Central Coast supertanker

port proposal /'

SI:aying ahead of the issues: The Rattlesnake Canyon

LNG terminal proposal 81

Federal OCS Lease Sale 53 82

San Luis Obisno Couni's anti-oil movement p-athers strenth 65

1 1 0

Measure A: Anti-offshore oil sentiment reaches

its pinnacle 87
Platform Julius revisited 89

Oil spills eclipse the industry's record as

"good neighbors" 94

Conclusion: The San Luis Obispo County Factors 97

SLO's "quality of life" ... 97

Cal Poly 98

Nonextractive economy 99

The record of oil - including nearby precedents 100

Environmentalist media 101

Prospects for the future 102

Appendix A: San Luis Obispo County Timeline 103

Appendix B: Federal OCS Lease Sale 53 - a case study 114

References 122

List of those consulted or interviewed 127

LIST OF MAPS

Map 1. San Luis Obispo County 3

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. County sociodemographic characteristics, 18904920 6

Tautt .. Ratiu o Lounty pot1huu to 1LUiitLJ.1. Oi aimS,

1890-1920 6

Table 3. County sociodemographic characteristics,

1910-1940 17

Table 4. Ratio of county population to number of farms,

1910-1940 17

Table 5. County sociodemographic characteristics,

1940-1970 31

Table 6. County employment by occupation, 1940-1970 32

Table 7. Ratio of county population to number of farms,

1940-1970 32

Table 8. Tourism employment as percentage of labor force,

1950-1970 34

Table 9. County sociodemographic characteristics, 1960-1990 47

Table 1.0. County employment by occupation, 1.960-1990 48

Table ii. Ratio of county population to number of farms, 1r.-r, ir,r\r, LOU-LYU - Table 12. County registration in political parties 50

II
Table 13. Adults 65+ years old as percentage of total population,

1970-1990 51

Table 14. Tourism employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 53

Table 15 Median housing values, 1970-1990 56

Table 16. Unemployed as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 57

Table 17. Adults age 25+ with B.A. degree as percentage of total

population, 1970-1990 58

Table 18. Government employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 61

Table 19. Education employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990 63

Table 20. Median one-way commute times for workers, 1970-1990 64

Table 21. 1972 Coastal Zone Conservation Act results 76

Table 22. Measure A (1986) election results 89

Table 23. Platform Julius referenda results 91

Table 24. Property taxes on oil and gas mineral rights 94

Table 25. Proportions of comments and themes regarding

Lease Sale 53 in San Luis Obispo County 120

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1. San Luis Obispo County population, 1920-1950 19

Chart 2. San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1919-1945 23

Chart 3. San Luis Obispo County population, 1940-1970 33

Chart 4. The extract/intact ratio:

San Luis Obispo County compared to state and region 35

Chart 5. San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1945-1968 38

Chart 6. San Luis Obispo County Population, 1960-1990 49

Chart 7. Cal Poly residential areas as percentages of employees 64

Chart 8. Organizational density of fri-counties 72

Chart 9. Arts and cultural organizations in fri-county communities 73

Chart 10. Health and human services organizations in

fri-county communities 74

Chart 11. San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1969-199' 78

LIST OF PHOTOS

Photo 1. City of San Luis Obispo 4

Photo 2. Oilport refinery (1909) 11

Photo 3. Avila (1910). 11

Photo 4. Oil drilling in the Edna Valley (1910) 16

Photo 5. San Luis Obispo oil tank farm fire 22

Photo 6. San Luis Obispo Mission Plaza 44

Photo 7. City of Pismo Beach 55
Acknowledgments

This study would not have been possible without the generous contributions of

many persons, particularly the many who allowed us to interview them or

provided us with information (they are listed at the end of this report). We also

acknowledge the continuous support from our associated faculty researchers at the

University of California, Santa Barbara:

Otis Graham, Professor of History

Elvin Hatch, Professor of Anthropology

Randolph Bergstrom, Associate Professor of History

We were well served by careful advice provided by members of our Quality Review

Board:

Howard Becker, Professor of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle;

Arthur McEvoy, Professor of Law and History, University of Wisconsin,

Madison;

Roy Rappaport, Professor of Anthropology, University of vEchigan, Ann Arbor.

Daniel Krieger (Professor of History, Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo) read prior

drafts of this report, providing many detailed comments and directing us to helpful

sources.

James Lirnas earlier research on offshore oil development provided us with a

wealth of information. Darwin Sainz was especilly generous with his time and

extensive knowledge of North County life.

John Woolley and Eric Smith, faculty colleagues at the University of California,

Santa Barbara, provided useful advice as did colleagues at the Applied Population

Research Laboratory, University of Wisconsin; the Wisconsin State Historical

Society; and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the

University of Michigan.

Excellent research assistance was provided at the University of Wisconsin by Jessica

Goldberger (who was especially dedicated), as well as by James Elliott, James

Gonzales, Steven Martin, Tarique Niazi, Michael Spittel, and Rolando Sosa. At the

University of California, Santa Barbara, we are indebted to the research assistance

provided by Thomas Beamish, Elisabeth Jordan, Jeff Olin, John Rodgers, Jacqueline

Romo, and Beverly Schwartzberg.

iv
ACCESS NUMBER 30663

STUDY UILE: "Social, Economic, arid Historic Characterization of San Luis Obispo,

Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties."

REPORT IlILE: "San Luis Obispo County: A Major Switching."

CONTRACT NUMBER(S): MMS 14-35-0001-30663.

SPONSORING REGION: Pacific

APPLICABLE PLANNING AREA(S): Southern California

FISCAL YEAR(S) OF PROJECT FUNDING: 1994, 1995, 1996.

COMPLETION DATE OF REPORT: October 1, 1996

COST(S): Fl 1: $ 175,906; Fl 2: $ 112,286; F13: $ 127,018;

LUMULA1IVt t'1UjtL1 LU5I: ,4Ii,21U.

PROJECT MANAGER(S): H. Molotch

AFFILIATION: Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, Marine Science Institute, University

of California, Santa Barbara.

ADDRESS: University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: H. Molotch (Fl), W. Freudenburg (Co-PT).

KF'x' WORDS: San Luis Obispo; Central California; oil development; socioeconomic;

local history; place character; voluntary associations; tourism; Unocal;

environmentalism; media; California Polytechnic University; Diablo Canyon.

BACKGROUND: MMS requested a historic analysis of three California Coastal

counties in terms of how their individual "character" evolved over the generations in

relation to the oil industry. This report on San Luis Obispo County is one of three

volumes produced in response; the other two reports consist of one pertaining to Santa

Barbara County ("Santa Barbara County: Two Roads") and Ventura County ("Ventura

County: Oil, Fruit, Commune and Commute"). There is also a data base on diskette

simultaneously provided which contains a large assemblage of socioeconomic data on

each county and its constituent cities. Drafts of scholarly papers are also being

provided (see Study Products below).

vi
OBJECTiVES: The objectives of this report are: (1) Explain how the county

and its major communities came to have particular economic and cultural

configurations making them more or less accepting of oil development, OCS

development in particular; (2) Analyze the way different factors (e.g.

migration, industrial development, political change) intersected with one

another over time; (3) Indicate how these factors differed from one local

community to another; (4) Provide a Timeline of important local events,

including those involving the oil industry; (5) Display both quantitative and

qualitative indicators of the evidence for the conclusions reached; (6) Provide

a data base on diskette (supplied separately) that contains the data base upon

which this analysis was based and which can be used for future E]R/EISs and

other analytic exercises.

DESCRIPTiON: We used a multi-method strategy. We carried out 70

interviews with local officials, industry personnel, community leaders, and

other strategic persons to construct past events and develop leads to

appropriate documents and data sets. Census and other data sources were

used to describe, over time, changes in population size, educational

attainment, economic base and related variables. A rariefr of data sources

was used to chart changes in oil production, oil employment, as well as tax

income from the industry. Systematic analysis was undertaken of

participation in environmental hearings and the kinds of issues raised by

different groups. Systematic investigation was also made of local print media

content vis a vis the oil industry at different time points. We also analyzed

the nature of local cornmunityorganizations, developing indicators of their

density of development, resource base, and modes of networking. We

charted public votes on environmental and oil-related issues. Still other

indicators, quantitative and qualitative, were created as a means to

understand the types of orientations and resources that had evolved in the

county.

The analytic strategy was to contrast parts of the county in terms of how the

coming of oil and its variations in form and volume over time intersected

with particular types of evolving social and economic conditions in place. In

this way we can understand why specific communities responded to oil in the

way that they did.

SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS: After an earlier history centered in

agriculture and railway service functions, modern San Luis Obispo County

has been heavily shaped by its institution of higher education, California

Pohrtechnic University (Cal Poly). Growing from modest beginnings in 1903

as an agricultural and polytechnic school, it has emerged in recent decades as

a significant force in the state and the dominant economic and political

element of its surrounding communities.

vi
In part because of the influence of the university, the city of San Luis Obispo

(the major population and economic center, as well as the county seat),

became a bastion of environmental politics. Despite an earlier county history

of significant oil operations, opposition to oil appears to be a salient unifying

element of the current local consensus. Although towns and settlements in

the northern portion of the county tend to be less aligned with the anti-oil

position, there are few signs of this stance abating in the future.

STUDY RESULTS: After its early history in agriculture and provision of oil

service facilities (primarily pipelines and shipping), the county shifted toward

becoming a significant center of higher education and a bastion of

environmentalism. This process began its momentum beginning in the late

1960s as the area's college of agriculture and technology began major

expansion and diversification. California Polytechnic University, San Luis

Obispo, influences the city and surrounding areas in manifold ways and tends

to build a pervasive environmentalist sentiment. The university's influence

operates through the practical projects its students have developed over the

years, particularly its very large and active School of Architecture. Students,

faculty, and university staff, especially in the city of San Luis Obispo, make up

a large proportion of the electorate; from their ranks, individuals have aLso

gone on to lead protests against the local nuclear power plant (Diablo Canyon)

and other perceived environmental threats. Alumni now permeate the local

business community and public agencies. Students' parents discover the

charms of the area and select it as a place of retirement. Businesses have

grown out of its faculty's activities.

The skills arid tastes of Cal Poly employees, alumni, students, as well as others

attracted to the area add to the quality of San Luis Obispo institutions and

infuse the economic base. That base grows in teruis of information

technologies and services to tourists and retirees. Amenity levels are high in

San Luis Obispo, and there is strong self-consciousness and robust civic

participation in local government and a high per capita density of community

organizations.

Even in some politically conservative communities, such as Pismo Beach and

other cities in the so-called "Five Cities" area, opposition to oil is very strong

because of retirees' and tourist business peoples fears of the effects of

unsightly inst1lations or pollution incidents. Demographic changes and

recent publicity of local pollution accidents have further eroded historical

images of oil as benefactor. Except for the north county town of Paso Robles,

virtually all political jurisdictions have gone an record as opposed to oil

development - a stance supported by county-wide votes of the citizenry.

At hearings related to oil, opposition has been vociferous and related less to

specific concerns about pollution levels or dangers to wildlife, but general

anxieties about the inconsistency of oil with the county's "way of life." The

vii
dominant local newspaper and smaller media as well are stridently anti-oil.

It is hard to find any group of actors in the county who support offshore

drilling or expansion of onshore activity.

Continued expansion of higher education, tourism, design, and information

technology industries will likely cause the oppositional stance to continue

into the future.

STUDY PRODUCT(S): 'San Luis Obispo County: A Major Switching"; "Santa

Barbara County: Two Paths"; "Ventura County: Oil, Fruit, Commune and

Commute"; Freudenburg, William R., James Elliott, Jessica Goldberger, and

Steven Martin. 19%. "Attitudes toward Environmental Preservation at the

Community Level: A Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative

Approaches"; Paulsen, Krista, 1996. "Local Response to Offshore Leasing

Proposals: How Media Enhance Participation"; Freudenburg, William and

Jessica Goldberger, and Michael Spittel, "County-Level Database and PlaceLevel Database" (Set of three Diskettes).
The purpose of this document is to indicate how the distinctive qualities of

San Luis Obispo County evolved in relation to the oil industry - how the county's

settlement patterns and cultural traditions, economy and politics, responded to the

coming of petroleum, thus shaping that industry's development within its borders.

This means understanding the "character" of this place as it has evolved over time,

including distinctions among the towns and cities within it.

We lay out our findings and observations in roughly chronological order.

Our observations and conclusions rest on approximately 70 interviews, as well as extensive use of historic archives, government documents, media reports, and

previous studies. Whenever feasible, we checked information against more than

one source and tried to assemble reliable indicators, including quantitative ones, on

trends arid patterns we set forth. Each section contains, by way of introduction,

relevant demographic data for the period under discussion. The report ends with a brief summary of the factors that have shaped the county's responses to offshore oil drilling and the oil mdustry

* * Since at least the 1960s, sig-nificarit re-orientations of local economies,

demographics, and values within San Luis Obispo County have altered attitudes and policies toward the use of resources and industrial development. This includes policies toward the oil industry, particularly the prospect of offshore oil

development. Currently, San Luis Obispo County is a bastion of opposition to

offshore drilling, with some of the strictest regulations and policies concerning offshore development and related onshore industrialization. Communities such as

Baywood-Los Osos, Cambria, Cayucos, Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and the city of San Luis Obispo (hereafter shortened to "SLO") are recognized by the oil industry and

environmentalists alike for the opposition to offshore drilling found across many

sectors of their populations: senior citizens, students, blue-collar workers, highly

educated white collar employees, agriculturists, local businesses, and local Chambers

of Commerce. In this sense, San Luis Obispo County's widespread skepticism and

grassroots opposition to offshore drilling and onshore industrialization are

unparalleled by the other two counties - Santa Barbara and Ventura - which share

the Santa Barbara Channel coastline.

This report will document how such opposition evolved in San Luis Obispo

County, by tracing the shifts from rural origins to current economic, political, and

cultural conditions. These factors are: natural (e.g. the size of the county's oil

deposits); geographical (e.g. SLO's physical containment; dispersed settlement

patterns within the county); institutional (e.g. the influence of the state university

in SLO; local and county government responses to offshore oil development

overtures; the coverage of oil issues by local newspapers); economic (e.g. the rise of

tourism and public sector employment; uneven population growth; the oil

industry's onshore legacy); and cultural (e.g. historical elements of quality-of-life concern; the allure of the county's natural amenities). We seek to balance our

I
sociological attention to such factors with the historian's concern for contingency,

that is, the ways that unforeseen or accidental developments have directed the

county (or parts of it) toward its current character.

Social patterns in San Luis Obispo County (including opposition to oil) have

been greatly organized by the county's geography, as shaped by the Santa Lucia

Mountain Range that, runs from the northwest to the southeast and creates two

separate climate zones (see map). On the coastal side of the county, the mountain

range marks the inland boundary of a narrow temperate area, where beaches and

.-..- -. - - .,c, liirl' fhø a1LA aL ALIbtV 1 ..LlJILI1LtJ1E. iyWu1LLaiw I.1J. 1Lf

northern coastal region, while the temperate coastal area spreads inland for several

miles in the southern part of the county. Some observers have attributed the

cultural "uniqueness" (relative to the rest of the county) of northern coastal

communities like Cayucos and Morro Bay to their physical isolation. On the

opposite side of the mountain range, the central and eastern portions of the county

are characterized by a dry climate that is consistently hotter and sunnier, and

receives significantly less rainfall than the coastal zone.

What most residents refer to as the 'north' and 'south' county roughly

corresponds to the northwest to southeast divide created by the Santa Lucia

Mountains. Since the Spanish mission era, humans have settled most densely

along the coast and in the north-central portions of the county. The city of SLO lies

in the middle of the north-south divide, at the southern foot of a stretch of

mountains near the coast called La Cuesta Canyon (the primary passage to county

destinations north and south). SLO's physical containment by hills on all sides has

traditionally provided its residents with a distinct sense of community; its

hospitable climes and central position facilitated its emergence as the historic center

of what is now San Luis Obispo County (see Photo 1). Los Padres National Forest,

largely inaccessible mountains and wilderness, take up much of the middle south

county; to the forest's east are sparsely populated rural communities that have

historically been accessed via the north county.

San Luis Obispo County's physical resources have enabled the development

of agriculture, which remains the county's dominant industry to this day. The arid

climate and preponderance of rolling hills and valleys have supported cattle

ranching, dairy, and grain farming for at least a century; on the temperate coast,

fishing remains an important industry. Since the mid-1970s, irrigated vegetable,

fruit, and seed crops have increased in acreage and economic importance. In 1994,

wine grapes, lettuce, broccoli, cattle, and vegetable transplants were the county's top

five crops, an indication of its diversified agricultural production (San Luis Obispo

County Agricultural Commissioner 1994: 4). While agriculture remains

predominant in the north county, other physical attributes - namely, the vast

expanses of beaches, parks, harbors and other coastal resources - support a

significant tourism and retirement economy along the coast and, to a lesser extent,

in SLO itself.

2
I'iSflK) licach Arroyo Grande Nipomo N Ca nibria County Monterey e 15 Miles Approximate ScaleCayucos U San Luis Obispo County Map Santa Barbara County
4

Photo 1: City of San Luis Obispo. The county seat, San Luis Obispo lies at the foot of a mountain

grade connecting the northern and southern regions of the county. The dtv is contained by scenic hills and volcanic peaks that not only are scenic but help block urban sprawl and provide

residents a sense of San Luis Obispo as a distinct place. Photo provided by San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce.
As the last century of oil exploration has revealed, oil reserves in San Luis

Obispo County lay predominantly in the southern half of the county as part of the

larger Santa Maria and Cuyama oil and gas fields (Franks and Lambert 1985: 24).

Onshore oil fields range from the Montana de Oro mountain range (in the middle

of the county's coast), east through the Edna Valley (SLO's southeastern hinterland)

and what is now called the 'Five Cities" area (the communities of Pismo Beach,

Shell Beach, Arroyo Grande, Grover City, and Oceano), and on through the sparsely

populated Arroyo Grande Valley. Although these reserves are not large (compared

to major fields in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties), the south county is where

the bulk of onshore oil exploration and development has occurred in the last

century. The north county has contained related industriali7ation (pipelines, tank

farms, etc.). Also of importance to the growth of the oil industry in California are

two other geographical aspects: the county's natural bays, especially San Luis Bay (in

the center of the county's coast) and Morro Bay, which have lent themselves to boat

traffic, and the county's location alongside oil-rich Kern County to the east.

Together, these aspects have facilitated San Luis Obispo County's prominence as a

shipping point for Central Valley oil and gas.

As we will describe, the evolution of the oil industry in San Luis Obispo

County has coincided with the county's first steps out of its pre-Yanicee past toward

community formation, economic development, and city growth. Our goal is to

show how the current oppositional stance toward oil evolved over the years by

tracing the county's history through four periods: before the Yankees and before

World War I (from Spanish settlement to 1913); between the wars (19144945); the

postwar era (1946-1968); and what we term "the environmental era" (1%9 to the

present).

Some final comments on this report: where significant trends or events

appear in this history that have influenced the subsequent development of county

sentiments toward oil, we will discuss these as they first emerge in the relevant

historical section. This way, the narrative will be kept relatively free of repetition,

and the reader may assume (unless otherwise indicated) that the influence of such

trends or events is still operative in the rest of the county's history. Since the final

era includes contemporary conditions, the final historical section will first present

extensive census, organizational,. and other data (most of which has been 'thickest"

for the last three decades) that shed light on the kind of place San Luis Obispo

County has become before resuming the remaining historical narrative. A

concluding section recaps the important factors detailed within the report that

explain San Luis Obispo County's unique history and sentiments toward the oil

industry; we also offer some final remarks on prospects for future offshore

development. Where we have deemed it appropriate, we note comparisons with

Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. For more on these other counties, see the

separate reports on each.

5
I. Before the Yankees and Before World War I

Table 1 County sociodemographic characteristics, 1890-1920

Source: US. Census.

* Indicates data not available

Table 2: Ratio of population to number of farms, 1890-1920

Source: US. Census.

The community of SLO dates back to Spanish missionary settlement in 1772;

the north county was siniilarly settled at the Mission San Miguel Archangel, 40

miles north of SLO (in the current community of San Miguel). As early as the 1820s,

Spanish missionaries recognized the sulfur springs at Paso Robles. In the following

century, ranchos (large land grants distributed by the Spanish and Mexican

governments) were established in what is now Nipomo, Huasna (inland from the

Five Cities), Arroyo Grande, Sari Simeon, Santa Margarita, Pismo Beach, and Los

Osos; the land grants resulted in the development of a landed elite of San Luis

Obispo County. By the time the United States seized California from Mexico in

184647, most prominent landowners were of Anglo descent. These men held

property in the region by becoming Mexican citizens and receiving land grants, or by

marrying into existing Mexican families. These landowners would guide the

region's development through the subsequent Anglicization for the rest of the 19th

century. The names of early Yankee landowners are still attached to various

ranches, roads, and institutions in the southern and central parts of the county:

John Michael Price (cf. Pismo Beach's Price Canyon), John Wilson, Isaac J. Sparks,

etc. (Krieger 1990: 4246). Vast landholdings remained in family hands, establishing

a pattern of sparse human settlement and agricultural land use throughout the bulk

6

I In 1890, Mexicans were counted as nonwhite. In 1900-1920, only Blacks, Asians and American Indians

were counted as nonwhite.

1890 1900 1910 1920

Total Population 16,072 16,637 19,383 21,893

% Foreign Born 22.46 18.68 * * % Nonwhite' 25.17 1.49 3.56 3.14

% Males 56.97 55.50 56.74 54.10

Household Size 4.67 4.33 4.40 3.87

1890 1900 1910 1920

San Luis Obispo County 8.99 9.18 11.31 12.14

State of California 22.8 20.5 27.0 29.1
of the south county that (as the contemporary highway traveler can observe)

continues to the present day. Cattle ranching and other forms of agriculture

predominated during this era in San Luis Obispo County, with more than twice the

number of farms per capita than characteristic of the state as a whole.

The general lack of good roads m the county and of a natural harbor

elsewhere in Central California made shipping out of San Luis Bay an economic

necessity; one account recalls that until the early 20th century, "the imports and

exports of the county were exclusively by water" (Gidney, et. at 1917: 203). Toward

this end, in 1868, a syndicate of merchants ordered the construction - performed by

imported Chinese laborers - of Harford's Wharf (now Port San Luis) in San Luis

Bay, connected inland by a narrow gauge railroad; its initial cargo was mostly

lumber. This wharf was intended to compete with Mallagh's Landing, a wharf

south of Avila Beach at what is now Pirates' Cove. Although a California recession

in the 1870s briefly dampened export profits, during that period several coastal

communities were established - Avila and Cayucos in 1867, Morro Bay in 1870 - and

new ethnic groups (including large populations of Chinese, Portuguese, and Swiss

immigrants) arrived to perform the arduous labor on the railways and farms. The

U.S. Lighthouse Service constructed a lighthouse at Piedras Blancas in 1874. _... .....--L i.L ... j.I 4-1-..-. U1LLU11CitL WILIL LIt t.U1LUUUL llLL1LU.ILau0IL UI (ILC %..LjauLLL, i.LLVCCLJI L'WLI.

Hotel Mare off the entrance to Harford's Wharf to bring the first tourists to the

county (Gidney, et. al. 1917: 210-211; Krieger 1990: 54-57).

Shipping off the coast and the laying of railroads connecting a growing

number of wharves (e.g. the Pismo Beach wharf, built in 1881) fueled the growth of

the county's other industries. Cattle raising was widespread throughout the county

by the second half of the 1800s. After the great drought of 1862-1864 resulted in

financial ruin and the consolidation of cattle ranches into fewer (non-local) hands,

dairy became quite vital to the county's economy, especially for the less populated

..-..i- t ii..... I C'7fl,. IL,.. r'i-.-., t,i- (1,i-.-J i-.-. 1101 LII LOulLLy. L))T LIL 101 %J, LIL L.AL1iOI 1L I aL.Or3f kIULaLCU ItJLL8 L1L LLJL LJ..iTi

coast, between Cambria and Cayucos) produced 1200 pounds of cheese a day, mostly

shipped to San Francisco by railway. Mining activity also occurred during this

period - notably, Cambria held veins of quicksilver which were rapidly depleted.

For these and other natural resources (e.g. bituminous rock, asphalt, chrome, and

chromite), the railways made mining economically feasible (Krieger 1990: 60).

The Southern Pacific blazes a trail

For most of the 1800s, the lack of a railroad kept San Luis Obispo County

isolated from the cities of San Francisco to the north and Los Angeles and Santa

Barbara to the south. Seeking to end this geographical and economic isolation,

county and city officials, civic groups, and boosters convinced the Southern Pacific

Railway to link the county to its existing northern and southern coastal lines

(McKeen 1988: 32). Subsequently, real estate speculators bought properties,. many

/
communities were established, and a few were unmade by the gradual extension of

Southern Pacific's coastal route through the county in the later years of the 1800s.

By October of 1886, the Southern Pacific had wound its way down to the

northernmost point of the county, San Miguel. In what would become a

characteristic pattern, once connected by rail to San Francisco, this community

promptly became a railway shipping point and experienced a brief economic boom.

One month later, railroad construction reached the resort spot of Paso Robles.

Immediately, lots were subdivided for sale, a town park was established, and the

Paso Robles Inn (soon to be famous statewide for its proximity to hot springs arid

mud baths) was built; the community would be incorporated three years later. The

potential profits of luring hotel guests from outside the county were not lost on SLO

real estate speculators; a group of them built the grand Hotel Ramona in 1889, a full

five years before the railway reached the city (Title Insurance and Trust Company

1964: 30-31). The extension of the railroad through the north county during this

period also made trade in grain and other agricultural products possible for the

newly settled homestead communities of Shandon, Cholame, and others in the

county's northeast corner (Hatch 1979: 20). The railroad's coming also cemented an

ethnic dimension to San Luis Obispo County, as most of the groundwork (as well as

the laying of county roads and wharves) was performed by Chinese laborers (Krieger

1990: 55).

In 1901, the Southern Pacific finally crossed the county to reach its southern

line at Fliwood in Santa Barbara County. By this time it had intersected several

communities and opened them up to the rest of the state: Santa Margarita in 1889,

SLO in 1894, Pismo Beach in 1901, and so on. With their midway position in the

California route, boosters in places like Paso Robles, SLO, and Avila Beach began

promoting their towns as resort spots and cultural oases within the predominantly

rural Central California. This was an early harbinger in the subsequent push to

make SLO and other communities tourist destinations; SLO's depot, for example,

"provided celebrities a layover halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and

instigated lectures, musicals and entertainment that otherwise never would have

been possible" (McKeen 1988: 32). The increasing influence of non-local culture

became evident in several county institutions established around this period. The

small community of Halcyon (between Arroyo Grande and Oceano) was established

in 1902 as the center for the 36th Order of Wisdom, a religious sect whose distinctive

building still stands (Lee, et al. 1977). More importantly, 1903 witnessed the opening

of the California State Polytechnic College (Cal Poly) to students across California.

The new transportation facilities also eclipsed a few previously vital communities

such as Cambria. "[S}till isolated by mountains and bad roads," by 1900 Cambria lost

its status as the second largest settlement in the county and rapidly declined in

importance (Hamilton 1974: 32).

S
Oil speculation begins onshore

The prospects of onshore oil deposits in San Luis Obispo County were hotly.

debated only five years after the first oil well was built in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Oil products were already a local phenomenon throughout the 19th century, as

locally extracted asphalt was used to pave streets and fuel gas lamps. However, the

prospects for oil in San Luis Obispo County first received national attention in 1864,

when Yale geologist Benjamin Sffliman Jr. publicized his positive findings of oil

prospects in regions from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo County. Although his

report was later contested by the California Geological Survey, it triggered the first

£._.. ,.1 £ iL,-. .- -. f 10 peLlLLaL1u1L 1JL J1.L .111 OLLUL11L ULLWLL Oi ut CuuflLy c IC1L

While there are no quantitative data readily available to indicate the

magnitude of oil exploration during this period, the oil search in San Luis Obispo

County up through 1900 is apparently a history of general failure. One early episode

from this period relates the tale of a Frenchman named Tourette, the first person to

explore for oil in the Tar Springs area (part of the Arroyo Grande Valley). With only

dynamite and hand labor to dig exploratory wells, he spent $20,000 in prospecting

before becoming discóuraged and hanging himself (Anvp Grande Herald-Recorder,

March 12, 1937). More fortuitously, a failed search by three men in Avila discovered

gas and hot water; these would later be used to create the Sycamore Mineral Springs

Resort, a highly popular spot around the turn of the century (Olsen 1986).

Although oil exploration was more sporadic at the end of the 19th century

than it would be in the next four decades, it was sufficiently promising to entice

prominent locals to get in the act, as exemplified by Frederic Harkness, a relative of

the Porter family on whose ranch he began drilling (Olsen 1986). Exploration at this

time also attracted those from outside county borders. Oil prospects lured A.B.

Hasbrouck and B. Chandler, "pioneer oil men of Pennsylvania and Los Angeles," to

drill in the upper Arroyo Grande Valley (Anvip Gnznde Hemid-Rewrder, March 12,

1937). Edward L. Doheny, whose Los Angeles oil well by most accounts set off the

California oil exploration frenzy, leased lots in the Price Canyon and Oak Park areas

of the county; his example brought widespread speculation in those areas, where

leases were soon sold for as much as $50 an acre (Olsen 1986).

By March 3, 1900, any doubts that asphalt-free oil was present in the county

were settled when the Alcatraz Asphaltum Company made the first genuine oil

strike in the county on the Porter Ranch (AnvW Grande Herald, March 24, 1900). As

many as 30 oil companies were prospecting in the south county by this year; only

one month after the successful Oil strike, Union Oil Company (founded 10 years

earlier) was actively exploring the Arroyo Grande Valley (AnvW Grande Herald, June

9, 1900). In another remarkable transaction, a Los Angeles oil company purchased

two claims on the Huasna for the sum of $20,000 (4rmW Grande Herald, August 11,

1900). Although many newspaper accounts2 from the era report that a "frenzy" of

2 In the city of SLO, newspapers were not established until 1868, first with the SanLzisC'hioPiorrer and

then the SanLzdsJbispoTribizr (half of whose columns were in Spanish). In 1870, the Piciver folded, and

9
oil speculation was underway in the south county by 1900, it remains unclear just

how significant cumulative oil exploration was to the local economy. However,

one factor was in place by this time that would shape the future of county oil

development: by remaining geographically contained on large estates in the hills of

the south county, oil development would remain visibly and economically

marginal to most county residents.

Oil activities in the county took an important new turn around 1903 with the

beginning of oil production in neighboring Santa Barbara County (in the Santa

Maria Valley at Union's Orcutt field). Production across the county line spun off a

boom for Port San Luis, the San Luis Obispo County pier, where activity had been

slow since the nationwide depression of the 1890s. One obstacle to shipping Santa

Maria oil from Port San Luis was that the existing railway to the port, the Pacific

Coast Railway, was unequipped for liquid petroleum "rail tanks." To solve this, oil

companies drilling in Santa Maria made significant investments in the

infrastructure of Port San Luis: Union Oil had rail tanks specifically adjusted for the

port's narrow gauge railway, and Pacific Coast Oil (a subsidiary of Standard Oil, later

Chevron) built storage tanks near the port, where it shipped its Santa Maria oil for

ocean transport (see Photo 2). Port San Luis's economic prominence was firmly

established in 1906, when U.S. Customs designated it an international port of entry,

diiUWU1 JJLLe1.II1LLWLcU LaiLI LU ue iLZ, LdLU1LWb. litaL yea.i, L1[ Qa1LI iviatia

industry's dependence on the port was similarly deepened when Union Oil built a

pipeline in the same year from its Santa Maria fields to a tank facility at the port

(Welty and Taylor 1957: 100; Krieger 1990: 61). By 1907, the British oil tanker Pinna

would carry to Yokahama, Japan, the largest single shipment of oil (62,000 gallons)

then to leave the county's coast - an early instance of domestic oil exported to Japan

(Olsen 1989).

Excited by San Luis Obispo County's petroleum shipping, investors planned

to spin off the county's own petroleum industry with the construction in August, irrv r . ._.i _.c c,_ i_ - -. L. 11.C4. j71.J/ 01 ct leHiLely ci.LLU 11La1u.uaLLur1n laduny in LillpoIl, me Imewly

north of Pismo Beach (see Photo 3). Built for $2 million by the California Petroleum

Company, Ltd., the seaside facility refined oil piped from the Graciosa fields in Santa

Maria via 38 miles of underground pipelines. Oliport also contained a can

manufacturing plant, which would package the kerosene, gasoline, lubricating oil

and other oil by-products, as well as employee housing (Olsen 1989). Local

expectations for Oilport ran high, for the industrial facility was refining about 8000

barrels a day and supported 150 families. The price of oil stock increased daily as

brokers sold shares literally right off the street (San Luis Obispo County Historical

Society clipping file: "Oil Port").

the irccrnticStaitiaid started up, only to soon sell all its materials to the Tribune. In 1883, the Tribune

acquired a telegraph, enabling it to publish world news (Angel 196). The failure of second papers in

SLO did not prevent new ones from appearing; by 1905, the SunLiisCbi'o Telegram was started by an antisaloon group and eventually became the Tribune's chief competitor before World War I (Krieger 1990).

10
ii

7

Dt...L.-. 1. 1.... (1o1r% C.......-..4 1_. 4.,, I LUU . .ILj.'ULL /I.UI. J±)U.LJ.C%.I L) I L&itLL ILL JCLL&L U LLILUIU '...UUU-UILJ, U.. C1iforriia Petroleum Company built this oil refinery and manufacturing facility in what is

now Shell Beach. Despite tremendous investor excitement, oil supplies could not meet demand,

and the facility was shut down after four months. Reprinted from Nicholson (1989).

--- :;;;:':

Photo 3: Avila (1910). Union Oil shipped oil off its Avila wharf (in foreground) from San

Joaquin Valley fields via a 240 mile pipeline. The public Avila pier is behind Union Oil's

wharf; the Union Oil tank farm is on the hill. Reprinted from Nicholson (1989).
However, by December of the same year, the Graciosa Oil Company - the

Santa Maria oil company which shipped its oil to Oilport ran into dire financial

straits when it was forced to back out of its Japanese contract because oil fields were

insufficient to meet the contract's demand (Gidney, et al. 1917: 235). News of this

financial downturn caused great alarm in San Luis Obispo County; "Oil company

loses million" declared one local newspaper headline (San Luis Obispo County

Historical Society clipping file: "Oil Port'). Less than a week after Oilport's financial

crisis, a storm battered the coast of Avila. Although Port San Luis was not badly

damaged, Oilport was "devastated." While the force of the storm is still disputed,

Oilport's owners called it a "tidal wave" (Krieger 1990: 61). After only 30 days of

nnn -1-nn i4 ç,.-.,1,1 var.,r - n.. 4.n nnr.iwr -.rrh,r n r 4: 4+ J]JJ.aL1J L, Li L £LLL_.LLLL/ WV LI LJt1L a i, CLI LL.i CiJ. iy LU. h 1ce

reconstruction, it was never rebuilt. Eventually Union Oil purchased Oiiport, using

its pipelines for a short time before dismantling the oil tanks and moving them to

the adjacent hills above Avila. In the next month, lightning set flame to the new

tank farm but was rapidly rebuilt (San Luis C.bispo Dilly Teiegnim , January 28, 1908).

Meanwhile, the land under Oilport was sold and subdivided; it is currently a

residential district known as the Sunset Palisades district of the coastal town of Shell

Beach (Olsen 1989).

Despite the failure of Oilport, Port San Luis's financial fortunes remained

buoyant. On April 30, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt and the U.S. Navy's

Great White Fleet visited the port for a gala celebrated throughout the county

(Krieger 1990: 62). Oil shipping activities from the port took their most beneficial

turn when Union Oil joined the Independent Oil Producers Agency3 in 1909 to form

the Producers Transportation Company (PTC), a venture that sought to construct a

240 mile pipeline to Avila from Union's San Joaquin Valley fields. Completed in

March 1910 at the cost of 4.5 million (a million more than estimated), the oil

pipeline was the largest ever built at the time. It piped San Joaquin Valley crude to

Union's 27-million barrel tank farm in Avila via 15 pumping stations; from the

wharf facilities at Avila, tankers shipped crude to the Union Oil refinery at Oleum

(on the Carquinez Straits in Contra Costa County). Union Oil eventually acquired

all the pipeline consortium s sfoci and toolc complete ownership of the pipeline

and Avila wharf facthties (Welty and Taylor 1957 107-108, Krieger 1990 61-62)

The laying of Union Oil's pipeline to the San Joaquin Valley established a

company presence along its path through northern San Luis Obispo County that for

many communities was beneficial yet short-lived. The intense labor and physical

infrastructure needed to lay pipelines provided temporary local employment and

often introduced electricity, telephones, roads and other physical improvements to

small pioneer towns like Santa Marganta, Cnoiame, Shandon, Cresion, and others

near the route. Yet once in the ground, the pipeline needed little labor for the

3The Independent Oil Producers Agency was composed of 150 small producers in the San Joaquin Valley

for the purpose of cooperative marketing and preventing individual members from dumping oil on the

market. Long the 'big independent" oil company, Unocal agreed in a ten-year contract to market the

Agency's oil for the same price Unocal received for its own products (Weltv and Taylor 1958: 107).

12
operation of its pumping stations and tank farms: approximately 20-25 employees at

the pipelin&s pumping stations (in Santa Margarita, Creston, and other locations

outside the county), 30-50 to maintain the entire pipeline, 20 at its SLO tank farm,

and 15-20 at its Avila tank farm and shipping operations.4 Union Oil's effect on

local employment was (and has been) further lowered given its use of employees

from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. On the other hand, Union Oil has also

had a long-standing policy to contract independently for services not vital to daily

production (see Welty and Taylor 1957: 194). This means that although company

employee figures somewhat underestimate the total number of people hired

through Union Oil's activities, aggregate permanent employment could not be very

strong.

Community relationships with the oil industry were at times problematic,

offsetting, to a degree, locals' appreciation of economic benefits. As early as 1910,

locals complained of oil on the shores of Avila and Pismo Beaches. The county

hired a special detective to investigate these complaints and eventually found

Union Oil and several Port San Luis officials guilty of dumping tar, refuse, and

residuary products of asphalt and bitumen into the bay (Anvp Grande Recorder 1910).

While Port San Luis prospered in the first years of the 1900s from Santa

Barbara County petroleum, the pace of oil prospecting in the southern half of San

Luis Obispo County increased with most activity centered on the Arroyo Grande and

Edna Valleys (Gidney, et al. 1917: 233; Franks and Lambert 1985: 24). The number of

oil companies, wildcatters, and speculators active in the valley was remarkable,

according to newspaper accoun from that time; among the more prominent then

were the Tiber Oil Company, the Beckett syndicate, the Crystal Oil Company (all

operating in Oak Park), the Logan Oil Company (on the Patchett estate), and the

Perpetual Oil Company (on the Steele Ranch) (Arroi Gnznde Herald, November 18,

1905). Their activities led to the official 1906 "discovery' of the Arroyo Grande Field

(Frank and Lambert 1985: 24). Many operators came and went as their formerly

promising wells dried up, while more diversified operators persisted through

fruitless explorations. For example, Union Oil had sunk wells in the Arroyo Grande

Valley since 1900; one early abandoned well suddenly struck oil four and a half years

later (14nv Grande Hera.ld, August 6, 1904).

Oil speculation also briefly transformed the economic and social character of

Arroyo Grande and surrounding communities during this era, as astonishing sums

of money changed hands in stock transactions for oil companies that were often

hastily organized (Gidney, et al. 1917: 234). For example, the Anvtp Grande Herald

stated that on one day in Januarv of 1907, the La Point Oil Company was organized

' Quantitative data on historic employment by Unocal and other companies in San Luis Obispo County

have been extremely difficult to obtain. These estimates come from interviews with Unocal

representatives and a local historian. Hatch (1979: 30) notes that Shandons tank farm, built in 1910,

"included three dwellings for a permanent staff and their families, as well as a boardinghouse for

'r'1 C (' I tAT ,'rttj

13
by Arroyo Grande businessmen to develop the Beckett well and sold $10,000 in

stock, while the Mohawk Crude Oil Company of San Luis Obispo was created to

develop tracts surrounding the Beckett well and 200 acres in Tar Springs Canyon

(Anvtp GmndeHen2ld, January 5, 1907)

One of the few substantial finds took place when a local builder and

entrepreneur, Charles Maino (whose construction company would later build the

original Cal Poly administration building and SLOs first library), drilled the first

well in the hills above Pismo Beach at the Price Canyon oil field in 1913. Price

Canyon remains the most substantial onshore oil field in San Luis Obispo County

and continues to produce thick crude for its most recent owner, Shell Oil! Cal

Resources (Rue Giies Tim es-Press-Rew rder, August 4, 1978; McKeen 1988: 124). Yet by

this era, many prospectors noticed a recurring pattern of limited discoveries of

heavy crude oil that were less economielly valuable than the lighter crude being

discovered in northern Santa Barbara County, only 25 miles to the south. One

observer described speculators' gradual disappointment with Arroyo Grande Valley

prospecting during the 1910s

But gradually after several years of persistent effort the excitement died out, new

ventures met with but chilly reception and one after another the different

companies ceased operations, went into liquidation and out of existence Oil had

been found in many of the wells, but only in small quantities. Oil sands had

been penetrated in strata of remarkable thickness, but they were barren. The

whole field had been explored and there was no uncertainty as to the results.

Probably a quarter of a million of dollars was expended in the wholesale

experiment, but the contributions had been so general and individually so

limited that the loss occasioned no distress and but little complaint (Gidney, et al.

1917 234)

The general failure of speculative drilling in the Arroyo Grande Valley

resulted in a brief destabilization of the local economy toward the end of the new

century's first decade. Describing Arrovo Grande in 1907, the editor of the Arroip

Grande Henild-Recorder wrote:

At that time every other citizen was an important officer in an important oil

company that was just on the verge of bringing in an important well, the other

citizen was a stockholder [sic]. In those flourishing days oil stocks were the chief

industry of every able-bodied man and woman... [A}fter the bubble burst and left

the town a financial wreck, the town for a period went into a decline. Old feuds

that had lain dormant during the oil excitement were exhumed, and strife and ill

feeling held sway (Smith 1921).

While Arroyo Grande was eventually incorporated in 1911 (Lee, et al. 1977), it

appears that onshore oil development did not permanently shape the community's

civic structure or physical landscape, as was happening during this era in other tncounty oil communities like Santa Maria and Ventura to the south. Notably,

petroluem was not the most precious mineral resource in San Luis Obispo County

14
at this time; in 1908, quicksilver and bituminous rock were more valuable.5 Yet

despite frequent disappointments, oil exploration continued in the Arroyo Crande

and Edna Valleys unabated into the next three decades (see Photo 4).

Meanwhile, the rest of the county developed with less frenzy. in 1912, the

California Highway Commission opened its District V office in SLO to serve San

Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Benito Counties. Now the state

highway agency, CalTrans, this office continues to provide public employment for

many county residents (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964: 34). In 1913, Atascadero

was established after investor E.G. Lewis purchased 23,000 acres of cattle land to

create his model community, Atascadero Colony.

In 1908, San Luis Obispo County produced $36,658 worth of quicksilver; 5,000 tons of bituminous rock

valued at $21,875; 10,000 bbls of petroleum valued at 55,000; and brick, mineral water, and rubble

making up the balance of the county's $78,379 mineral value total (California State Mining Bureau,

1 QUQ'i

15
Photo 4: Oil drilling in the Edna Valley (1910). Along with the adjacent Arroyo Graride

Valley, this area in the southern half of San Luis Obispo County was the predominant site of

onshore oil production since the 19th century. Although some development continues to this

day, the countys onshore fields have never yielded great volumes of high quality crude.

Reprinted from Nicholson (1989).

16
II. Between the Wars (19144945)

In the years between the World Wars, San Luis Obispo County changed only

slowly from its predominantly rural character. Household size and the proportion

of males in the county decreased slowly from 1920-1940, indicating a gradual shift

from an agricultural profile; while the population grew less dependent on farms,

this transformation proceeded more slowly than for the entire state (see Tables 3 and

4).

Table 3: County sociodemographic characteristics, 1910-1940

Total Population

% Foreign Born

% Nonwhite6

% Males

Household Size

Median School Years,

Adult Males

Median School Years,

Adult Females

% Unemployed

Source: U.S. Census.

* Indicates data not available

Table 4: Ratio of population to number of farms, 1910-1940

Source: U.S. Census.

* Indicates data not available

Agriculture - generally characterized during this era by small-scale "dry"

(non-irrigated) farming, low labor intensity, and local ownership - continued to

secure the civic basis for small town life throughout most of the county. Cattle,

grain, and dairy were San Luis Obispo County's most valuable crops. Fruit and

vegetable crops were less significant, although wartime production of dried navy

17

1910 1920 1930 1940

19,383 21,893 29,613 33,246

10.42

356 3.14 13.44 4.62

56.74 54.10 55.87 53.41

4.40 3.87 * 2.80

* * 8.6

* * 9.8

* * 7.6

6 In 1910, 1920 and 1940, only Blacks, Asians and American Indians counted as "nonwhite." In 1930,

Mexicans were also included in the "nonwhite" category.

1910 1920 1930 1940

San Luis Obispo County 11.31 12.14 * 15.88

State of California 27.0 29.1 * 44.5
beans surged when the U.S. subsidized their price in order to provide food for the

Allies in Europe (Krieger 1990: 72-73). The county's modest agricultural outputs

(compared, for example, to the agribusiness of California's San Joaquin Valley)

meant that little wealth disparity separated farmers and laborers. Instead, rural

towns were shaped by status hierarchies based upon the kinds of work one did:

prominent grain farmers and cattle ranchers held higher standing than irrigation

farmers or (at the bottom) farm hands (Hatch 1977). Ethnically, agriculture

employed a diverse workforce across the county's regions. Swiss-Italian and

Portuguese populations settled in communities like Cambria and Cayucos along the

coast, where they concentrated in dairy and fishing. Further inland in remote

communities like Shandon, ranchers and laborers alike were chiefly Anglo,

although the Depression did coincide with a temporary surge in the foreign-born

population.

In 1914 the state finally paved La Cuesta grade, the steep hillside ascent which

divides SLO from the north county, into a two lane concrete surface roadway

(Miossi 1975). In 1919, publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose father was a

prominent landowner in the county during the previous century, began

construction of his San Simeon estate, later known as "Hearst's Castle." While a

few small communities were founded during this era - Baywood Park in 1919, Shell

tieath m 1Zb - population growth was concentrated primanly in tfle city ot 5LU

(over 30 percent of county growth between 1920 and 1930). (For individual

community populations, see Chart 1: San Luis Obispo County population, 1920-

1950.) Atascadero briefly flourished in the 1920s with an Italian Renaissance revival

architectural style that remains quite visible in the city's central Administration

Building (Lee, et al. 1977).

Also standing from this era is Atascadero's printing plant, built by city founder E.G. Lewis in the same

style; here rotogravure sections were printed and shipped by rail to Los Angeles and San Francisco area

newspapers. His aesthetic prodivities notwithstanding, Lewis lured residents to "Atascadero Colony"

with the opportunity to own their own homesteads and make their livings from the land. The demand

for navy beans during the first World War made such a living eminently possible, and much of the town

grew quite dependent on the profits that government subsidies guaranteed the ciop (Krieger 1990: 73).

The bubble burst after the end of the war, as Lewis and other residents saw their profits deflate

rapidly. By 1924, Lewis was sentenced a jail term for mail fraud, and Atascadero fell into "hard times

[for thel many people who had put life savings into small ranches they counted on to bring in lifetime

income' (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964: 41; Lee, et al. 1977).

18
16,000 2,000 4,000 L,. Chart 1: San Ltils Obispo County Population, 1920-1950 0--- San Luis Obispo &-Arroyo Grande * Paso Robles Source U.S. Census Communities only appear on this graph if populations ate over 1000. 10,000 12,000 14,000 6,000 8,0000-1920 1930 1940 1950
Union Oil during and after the Great War

World War I marked the beginning of Union Oil's heyday in Avila. The

company's operations and facilities (a wharf, tank farms, and pipelines to San

Joaquin Valley and Santa Maria) in San Luis Obispo County were recognized during

the war as a strategic resource to the nation. To this end, three companies of

infantrymen from Fort Ord (in Monterey County) were sent south to guard the oil

company's tank farms and its wharf at Port San Luis (Krieger 1990: 73). After the

war, Union Oil expanded its coastal activities in the county with the acquisition of

the recently built Avila Wharf near Port San Luis; the wharf was exclusively leased

in 1920 by Union Oil, which finally purchased it in 1940 (Seventy-Six 1985). Well

past World War II, Union Oil essentially controlled most of Avila; one long-time

Avila resident recalled that visitors needed the company's permission to access

Avila's beaches.

As a result of Union Oil's activities, Avila became something of an "oil

town" like only a few other small settlements (e.g. Cholame, Shandon) in the

county. The company provided steady employment for many residents; as one

longtime resident and self-proclaimed "Union Oiler" (whose entire family had been

employed by the company) recalled, "In this town of Avila, you were either a

c,-,. i L%.!S #SLSSJAL %.I La. r'a " mi- .LLfl_S_.#.LS&f&flflJ LtJ'.. LS J.St%. +ic irl+c A tangible ways, by providing employee housing for 11-12 Union Oil families in the

1910s, financing Avila's fire district in 1929 (by allowing its property to be included

in the district's tax base)r erecting the town's Boy Scout building, and sponsoring

local baseball teams (Farris 1994: 2).

Union's presence was also felt elsewhere in the county. On April 7, 1926,

lightning struck the company's tank farm along the San Luis Creek (just north of

downtown SLO) and ignited a fire that spified at least 168 million gallons of oil

(newspapers then reported 274 million gallons), creating the world's largest tank fire

at that time (see Photo 5). Most of the spilled oil was never recovered and still lies

beneath Union Oil property; to date, it is the county's second largest oil spill (New

Times, April 13, 1994).8 To the modern observer, the SLO tank farm fire suggests

how county attitudes have changed. There is little indication in the county's

historical record (beyond the headlines which SLO newspapers gave the fire in the

next week) that the 1926 accident registered as a negative event in the minds of

county residents. Longtime SLO rancher Rose McKeen's memoirs suggest an

equable citizen response to the fire. After noting the immediate upheaval among

farm families near the accident, McKeen observes,

Everyone was sure that the fertile fields would never be the same. One of the

men broke a pavement plow trying to cut through the mess. Yet, after several

years of digging and scraping, the fields were again cultivated and the willows

Some Unocal observers suggest that Unocal's failure to control the SLO tank farm fire was partially

the result of the small number of workers that Unocal employed in SLO, which never exceeded 20.

20
and cattails grew back beside the water [of San Luis Creek]. Life always goes on

along the creek (McKeen 1988: 33).

Meanwhile, Union continued drilling in the Arroyo Graride Valley between

the wars; between 1929 and 1930, Union Oil drilled in the Porter Ranch orL the

Huasna and acquired 850 acres from the 1899 Arroyo Grande Valley lease held by

Pennsylvanians A.B. Hasbrouck and B. Chandler (ArroW Gnznde Herald-Recorder,

March 12, 1937). One 1921 newspaper declared that the era of prospecting fever was

peaking after 20-25 years of building up; its headline declared, "Oil wells are now in

sight: Oil prospectors swarm thru [sic] the country, leasing every available piece of

land Rigs will be erected" (ArroW Gnz,ide Herald, May 7 1921) In 1927, the valley's

Oak Park oil field extension was discovered, a decade later, no more property m the

Oak Park field was available (Frank and Lambert 1985 24, AiroW Gnznde Herald, July

24, 1936) In the 1930s, Umon added a second facility and expanded employee

nousing at its Shandon pumping station operations (Hatch 1979 30) By the 1940s,

prospecting had extended to the Tar Springs Ranch and Cuyama Valley which

would prove to be some of the more productive oil fields in the county (see Chart 2

San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production, 1919-1945)

21
Photo 5: San Luis Obispo oil tank farm fire. In 1928, lighthing struck Union Oil's San Luis

Obispo tank farm and ignited a fire that spilled at least 168 million gallons of oil, creating the

worlds largest tank fire at that time. Most of the spilled oil was never recovered and still lies

beneath Union Oil property; to date, it is the countvs second largest oil spill. Reprinted from

McKeen (1988).

22
100,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 -- i 6O,000 'I 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 1922 not Available Note: Data for 1921 and Onshore Oil Production, 1919-1945 Chart 2: San Luis Obispo County I I I 1 1 --I- - c'4 Cfl 'J' '1) '.0 00 C' C ('1 (' '4- tr m cn tn rn rn r rn c Cfl '4- - f t 'cf C' C' C' C' C' C' 0'. C' C' C' C' C' C' C' C' * * * * 0 I I I I--.------I------- I 0\ C ' ('4 tfl '1' 'i'-i \C) t 00 C' C) C' Annual Reports of Oil and Gas Supervisor Source: California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil and Gas.
Uneven growth in the county

The Depression of the 1930s brought significant changes to the agricultural

base of San Luis Obispo County. On the one hand, its grain farming and cattle

operations generally maintamed the same production 1CVC1S as before the first

World War, even as profits dropped (Krieger 1990: 90). On the other hand, smaller

and debt-ridden farmers were in many cases forced off their land, bringing a gradual

demise to the agricultural ladder of mobility that had permitted so many farmers to

rise from landless wage earners to fully established landowners during the first

decades of the 1900s. The decrease in profit margins encouraged the progressive

mechanization of agriculture, which in turn necessitated larger acreages in small

farm communities like Shandon where the large rancho tradition was not so

prevalent. As a result, the pattern of agricultural landholding in San Luis Obispo

County became more evenly large-s'ale and concentrated (Hatch 1979: 28-29).

Additionally, unemployed farm workers from Dust Bowl states descended upon the

county in large numbers, where they found that many jobs were already filled by

Filipino laborers and other previous ethnic immigrants.1° As a result, the county

witnessed much of the Dust Bowl era desperation described in John Steinbeck's

novels; Dorothea Lange's famous Depression-era photo "Migrant Mother" was

taken at a Nipomo Mesa pea-picker's camp in San Luis Obispo County (Krieger 1990:

90-91).

In the 1930s several events occurred which would further support the

tourism future of the region below La Cuesta Grade. In 1935, the state established

Pismo State Beach between Oceano arid Pismo Beach (Title Insurance and Trust Co.

1964). This would gradually transform at least some of the southern county's Five

Cities (particularly Pismo Beach and Grover City) into tourism-oriented towns, as

visitors came to camp, clam, and (decades later) drive off-road vehicles at local

beaches. The fact that, for instance, Grover City's "first real construction" began in

this decade (despite its 1887 founding) indicates the town's responsiveness to the

tourism path of development; the town was not on the ocean, but would

increasingly serve as a utility service area for the beach towns nearby.

SLO, meanwhile, continued to be the center of activity in the county. In 1926,

the Scripps-Canfield newspaper conglomerate purchased and operated separately

SLO's two daily newspapers, the morning Tribune and the afternoon Telegram; the

However, San Luis Obispo County agriculture during this period generally did not attain the same

magnitude of labor intensity per acre and social stratification (into a few landholding families and

large numbers of migratory laborers) that characterized, for example, the large agricultural operations

in California's San Joaquin Valley; see Goldschmidt (1947) for a description of this latter agricultural

mode.

10While Mexican immigrants had moved into California in great numbers by 1930, during the

Depression the United States moved to deport or repatriate large numbers of Mexican-born residents

(and even American-born residents of Mexican descent), and many other Mexicans and MexicanAmericans chose to return to Mexico. Farm wages fell drastically, and many employers began

"American only" hiring policies.

24
two merged in 1939 as the Sm Luis Cbispo Telegram -Tribune, still the county's single

daily newspaper (Krieger 1990). In 1937 La Cuesta grade between SLO and the north

county was again improved, this time to a four lane thoroughfare officially named

"La Cuesta Highway" (Miossi 1975).

The northern coastal communities of Morro Bay and Cayucos and their

inland neighbor, Cambria, were also unevenly transformed in the years between the

World Wars. Since their settlement in the 1860s-70s, these small communities have

shared a common geographical isolation between two mountain ranges and the

ocean, a similar ethnic composition (including a sizable Swiss-Italian and

Portuguese populace), and an economic livelihood in cattle and dairy. Coastal

shipping and fishing activities were established at Morro Bay's Embarcadero Wharf

in the early 1900s, although the community continued to compete for these

industries with Cayucos, its neighbor to the north (which had the advantage of no

587-foot high Mono Rock to obstruct docking). The 1930s marked a period of

indeterminacy in Mono Bay's economic development, as it moved in a variety of

commercial and economic directions that many residents in the 1970s would

perceive as incompatible.

First, in 1930, the Standard Oil Company of California (Chevron) began a

Ilidjur tJ})IdUU1I Ut IVIULLIJ vay, 1UctUiI[ aitu LUUL7U11L L1LLtC

Chevron's presence increased local funds available for the development of the

community and its harbor. In 1933, the Works Progress Administration constructed

a jetty from Mono Rock to the mainland, and Mono Bay edged out Cairucos in the

competition for coastal activity, as commercial fishing in abalone, cod, and salmon

subsequently increased (Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce brochure).

As a result of the economic activity made available first by Chevron and later

by commercial, fishing, Morro Bay began to develop, in what might later be

perceived as the "opposite direction," as a destination for tourism and recreation.

Morro Rock had long been a destination for travelers and sightseers, and the

community moved further in this direction in 1936, when local businessmen and

golf enthusiasts financed the construction of a golf course. Yet while the population

increased to 400 in 1939, Morro Bay moved in yet another direction in 1940, when

the U.S. Navy constructed a local military base and began training operations

(Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce brochure).

Onshore oil exploration continues

Another area teetering between two paths of possible development during

this era was the Arroyo Grande Valley. Despite a lengthy period of onshore oil

activity (which would continue well into the 1970s and 80s), the valley remained

socially intact as a predominantly agricultural community and was not transformed

into an "oil town." A first simple reason: there has never been enough oil. Most of

25
the oil lay in small, well-defined fields and was typically of a heavy, low quality.

Before World War II, onshore oil reserves in the county never produced more than

100,000 barrels a year (see Chart 2: San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production1

1919-1945), By contrast, oil produced onshore in Santa Barbara and Ventura

-,.. ., ,..,i1 , ., ,4 ')fl rrillr UU1LU W.L.LLIL L1 ULL[C })CflULL L v1U1y La1L,%& JLVVC1L ../ LLUALLOiL r.fl,.t u '-ii.

barrels a year. Second, at least in the years between the World Wars, onshore

drilling in San Luis Obispo occurred far in the hills, located on a few private ranches

away from the city of Arroyo Grande and its neighboring communities (now located

along Highway 101). Oil drilling thus remained invisible to the eye and distant

from the geographical nexus of social activities; one Union Oil representative

estimated that only a handful of ranches in the Arroyo Grande Valley were touched

by onshore oil drilling.

Third, what local profits were made accrued to individual ranch owners who

had leased their land for exploration and pipeline right of way, not the community

as a whole. Given the low quantity and quality of oil in the regions, profits were

often slim by industry standards. The standard contract of mineral rights transfer

from landowner to oil speculator contained an important qualification which a local

historian described:

ffiL.-. .i....__L.._..i _..._. ..L.. "r_. _iJ:_._ .1L. -. IJLe 1LUa1 LUILUC.S..I. ieau, '.JILLe ULLJ.1U[ LtULLy UCU[ FUYLIL1LL IQ

until we find oil or we pull out.' Well, invariably, what would happen is, in

order to cut down their costs, they would make the initial payment, and then

before a second payment is due, they would start an exploratory drill, and they

would stop payment. And when they find the evidence of this tar-like oil, which

was predictable for the area, they would just stop, and they would leave 11 the

tell-tale signs of having been in the area, and they would pull out. This story

would pass from father to son that this happened in the 1910s, it happened again

in the late 20s, it happened again during World War II and during the Korean

War, it happened during the early 1960s, it happened during the early 70s and the

late 70s. And so people would track the images and they would understand.

Consequently, while a few landholders saw the benefits of onshore oil driffing, the

poor record of oil discovery in the region meant that others saw its costs if they saw

anything: tar residues, disturbed agriculture or grazing lands, and little profits to

show for it. As a sustained social and economic interest in San Luis Obispo County,

oil remained a 'non-issue' for most residents of the Arroyo Grande Valley, as for

those elsewhere in the county.

Beginnings of a major switching

There is some evidence that the countys contemporary anti-oil sentiment is

rooted not only in meager oil development, but also in pro-environmental

sentiments that played some role as economic development and industrialization

were introduced. Although not typically 'anti-oil" (as the lack of controversy over

26
the 1926 tank farm fire suggests), seeds of quality-of-life considerations appear to

have been in play, especially in SLO. An important figure in the development of

such sentiment is Louis Sinsheimer, mayor of SLO from 1919-1939, who used his

popularity to manage the city's growth with a "controlled pay-as-you-go policy'

(McKeen 1988: 9). During this period of population growth in SLO, Sinsheimer

sought to avoid the expansion of the city beyond its then-current fiscal basis. For

example, roads in SLO were improved after property owners voted to be levied taxes

and then only after the entire sum was collected - a fiscal prudence uncommon

during the booster years in the U.S. As a result, SLO "never built too fast; there was

no 'boom and bust' as in many other communities," as one long-time resident

recalls (McKeen 1988 9) A local historian also recalled the mayor s attitudes on

SLO

[Sinsheimer] didn't want the town to change. Was he ever slow-growth! He'd

come up to you on the street and say, 'Where are you from? Do you have any

relatives? Well, I guess you're okay, but don't bring any more with you,' this

kind of thing.

While Sinsheimer, a shopkeeper and family rancher, by no means reflected the

attitudes of all SLO residents, many informants claim his concern for the measured

and even development of the city and protection of its economy left a slow-growth

legacy which predates the contemporary "environmental era."

The Monday Club was another force in SLO's careful development. Formed

in 1925 by six prominent women, this group slowly expanded from book and garden

clubs to large-scale projects for the city's physical and cultural improvement.

Committed to putting SLO 'on the map," the Monday Club helped establish the

city's ambitions to become a unique combination of cultural worldliness, modern

amenities, and small-town quality of life. The group organized and financed the

construction of two 28-foot electric signs illuminating the city's name in 16-inch

letters and with 92 lamps, an early investment in the towns tourism industry.

Illustrating the commitment of the city's entire establishment to its "tourism

destination," Mayor Sinsheimer and all of the city council personally took turns

winding the timers for the signs (McKeen 1988: 394O).12 Importantly, the Monday

Club specifically argued that luring outsiders to SLO required careful development

that protected the city's quality of life. In the n Luis Cbipo DiLly Telegmin, the club

declared:

11 Currently, at least one of his relatives is an active, "liberal environmentalist' advocate in

agricultural land use issues, perhaps the most contentious environmental issues in the county's

northeastern region (Haley forthcoming).

12 Perhaps more notably, McKeen (1988:136) also claims that in 1925 SLO became home to the world's

first motel, the Motel Inn, said to be so named because M-O-T-E-L were the only letters from the words

"motor hotel" that could fit on the front sign.

27
We should like to see the town zoned so that one building a fine home may

know where to put it and be sure that no undesirable building or business may

later be put next to it.... We need wider streets, at least in residential districts, and

fine trees set out along them. We need almost more than anything else a park,

small or large - we want the various dumping grounds for decrepit autos

entirely removed (not the grounds - but the autos) (McKeen 1988: 40).

Among other achievements, the Monday Club would organize the development of

SLO's Mitchell Park, plant hollyhocks along La Cuesta highway, and petition for

meat inspection and tuberculin testing at SLOts slaughterhouses and dairies. More

generally, they were early advocates of SLO's planned development in an era when

such ideas were struggling to take hold in the county.

Outside of SLO, from the non-intensive farming characteristic of the county

(e.g. dry grain farming) came examples of what might today be called "sustainable'

agricultural practices and sentiments. A rural family frequently mentioned in these

regards is the McMfflans, early homesteaders in the arid northeastern portion of the

county (in the small pioneer community of Shandon) (McMillan 1968: 30). Living

during the areas wheat boom, the McMiIlans rose up the agricultural ladder:

initially working for other farmers, then leasing their land, and eventually owning

their own ranch by the 1930s. From this period on, they came to be recognized as

local leaders; Don McMillan served on the local school board, organized community

members to build a local park, and wrote columns for the Paso Robles newspaper in

the 1940s. To the contemporary observer, the McMillans would perhaps seem to

make unlikely ecologists, given their rural background and strong religious

convictions (including abstinence from alcohol). In fact, they were progressive both

in their politics (as left-of-center Democrats) and land use, according to one Shandon

researcher. In a 1968 book (which some naturdists consider to be definitive on the

California condor), Don's brother Ian McMillan recollected with dismay the

predominant attitudes toward nature and the land during the period between the

wars:

Prowess with a gun was a mark of high disthiction among the pioneers of the

Shandon community, as it was throughout the entire West at that time. This

glorification of the hunt and the kill, without consideration for the game supply,

worked with economic stress to mold a general philosophy of resource use. In

this philosophy there was no concern for destruction or depletion. The wealth of

the new land was there for the taking. It was a philosophy of plunder, of

conquest, and of maximum, immediate exploitation (McMillan 1968: 33).

Like SLO's Sinsheimer, the McMillans were not reluctant to use their standing in

their conimimities to change such practices. After World War H, Don McMillan

called for and successfully led the organizaon of nature preserves to limit the

hunting of local game (Hatch 1979: 209-215). The McMillans also protested against

soil-eroding agricultural practices, the opening up of wilderness to human

recreation, the Forest Service's "multiple use' policy, and real estate development

28
in the arid, ecologically sensitive lands in the northeastern portion of the county

(McMilan 1968).'

While the degree to which these various sentiments were characteristic of

county residents should not be overstated, especially Ln the years before World War

lii, it is important to note the influential roles their advocates occupied and social

networks to which they belonged. In some cases, these vocal individuals often

knew their counterparts in other counties as well. For example, Ian McMillan's

concern for the California condor made him familiar with all of the condor

territories in California, the majority of which lay in the tn-county areas of the Los

Padres National Forest (Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties). In this way, he was

introduced to Robert Easton, a Santa Barbara County environmentalist (whose

father successfully organized a 1936 National Audobon Society campaign to stop

road construction in the condor territory of Sisquoc Ranch) and author of Black

Tide, a detailed document of the 1969 Santa Barbara Channel oil spill (McMillan

1968). Some of these locals belonged to larger, often nationwide environmental

groups, such as the National Audobon Society and the Sierra Club; they were "old

standbys of the conservation movement," as one national Sierra Club leader

described the McMillans.

World War II

The second World War brought dramatic, if temporary, growth to several

communities in San Luis Obispo County. The U.S. War Department selected

California's Central Coast to be a major training site for soldiers in the war's Pacific

Front, and to this end construction began on several military bases in the county.

The north county community of San Miguel was transformed by the 1940

construction of Camp Roberts, then the world's largest military training facility

(where a total of 436,000 men were trained over 17-week cycles); this facility is still in

use, albeit on a smaller scale. Camp San Luis Obispo was located in the Chorro

Valley (inland from Morro Bay), and the Army Corps of Engineers built the Santa

Margarita Dam (on the Salinas River) to supply its (and eventually SLO's) water

needs. A naval station was placed in Morro Bay, an army air corps landing field was

located in Paso Robles, and the south county prospered from the operation of Camp

Cook (now Vandenberg Air Force Base) in northern Santa Barbara County.

Altogether, more than 75,000 military personnel were stationed in the Central Coast

during World War II (Krieger 1990: 102-104).

13 Another ranching family associated with more contemporary environmentalism is the Miossis,

whose ranch lies north of SLO. Harold Miossi was an important leader in the mid-1970s campaign to

stop CalTrans' plans to fill in part of La Cuesta Canyon and expand the highway over the grade; he

also successfully sued PG&E to prevent placement of power lines from the Diablo Canyon nudear power

plant across the family ranch. Most recently, the Miossis made environmental news when underground

crude oil seeped beneath their ranch in 1989 (New Tint's, April 13, 1994).

29

As oil and gas production in the Santa Maria Valley grew to unprecedented

levels by the middle of World War II, oil shipping from Port San Luis reached an

historic high point. In large part, the U.S. Navy's Pacific Ocean wartime operations

created the demand for oil produced by Union Oil and other Santa Maria Valley

producers, who could ship oil directly to Pacific Fleet tankers via San Luis Obispo

County's Port San Luis. As a result, Union's Avila operations once again received

military protection; this proved well-founded after Japanese forces sank a Union Oil

tanker several miles offshore of Avila Beach two weeks after Pearl Harbor (Welty

and Taylor 1958: 181).14 World War II also marked the beginning of the end for

Union's Avila operations when military planners increasingly recognized the

strategic vulnerability of coastal shipping from the port. By 1944 Union Oil initiated

plans for a Central Valley pipeline (completed in 1957), connecting the San Joaquin

Valley to Oleum (in Northern California's Contra Costa County), that would

subsequently divert much of its Santa Maria Valley oil away from the Avila

pipeline (Welty and Taylor 1957: 246). Union's Avila operations would gradually

become marginalized after World War H, reducing the company's presence there.

By war's end, the county's economic surges had passed, and communities

returned to their pre-war activities. Yet World War II laid the base for the gradual

unfolding of truly dramatic chenges to San Luis Obispo County. Wartime

operations had exposed thousands of soldiers to the county's natural and social

amenities, bringing a close to its social isolation. After the war or upon retirement,

some of these soldiers would return to visit or live in the county, giving new life to

small seaside communities like Morro Bay, Shell Beach and Grover City (Lee, et al.

1977). Others would attend college at Cal Poly on the GI bill, some of whom would

also remain.

'4 According to Unocal's Darwin Sainz, news of the U.S. tanker Montebellos sinking was kept

suppressed in order to not panic local residents or bring Port San Luis's defenselessness to enemies'

attention; during the war, the harbor displayed fake gun entrenchmertts brandishing sawed-off power

poles (quoted ifl Mann 1987).

30

ilL Postwar Era (1945-1968)

The postwar era marked an important shift even further away from the

county's former agricultural base. Between 1940 and 1950, dramatic population

growth (doubling every 20 years), an increase in the median education level, and the

accelerated decrease of farming's relative importance indicated that new county

residents generally made their livelihoods in non-agricultural jobs. In the 1940-50

time period alone, employment more than doubled in clerical/sales and

craftsmen! foremen occupations, even as total county population increased by

slightly over 50 percent. In the same ten-year period, the county also posted

significant increases of professional! technical, managerial! official, service, and nonfarm laborer occupations. These trends continued to the end of the 1960s, albeit not

all at the same robust rate (see Tables 5-7). One important exception: the number of

professionals almost doubled again between 1950 and 1960, coinciding with an

important phase of expansion at SLO's Cal Poly University.

Table 5: County sociodemographic characteristics, 1940-1970

* Indicates data not available

31

1940 1950 1%0 1970

Total Population 33,246 51,417 81,044 105,690

% Foreign Born 10.42 5.92 5.00

% Nonwhite 4.62 2.56 3.72 5.62

% Males 53.41 52.44 53.16 52.6

Household Size 2.80 2.95 2.95 2.82

Median School Years,

Adult Males

8.6 10.4 11.2 12.3

Median School Years,

Adult Females

9.8 11.4 11.7 12.3

% Unemployed 7.6 5.8 5.1 6.5

Sourte: U.S. Census.
Table 6: County employment by occupation, 1940-1970

Table 7: Ratio of population to number of farms, 1940-1970

Source: U.S. Census

The city of SLO witnessed a 60 percent population increase from 1940 to 1950,

reaching a population of 14,180 residents (approximately three times greater than

Paso Robles, the next largest city in the county). (For individual conunu..nit

populations, see Chart 3: San Luis Obispo County population, 1940-1970.) After the

war and increasingly through the 1950s and 60s, tourism became a major source of

revenue for many coastal towns. For example, in SLO, hotels, food and drink

establishments, recreation and entertainment provided employment for 517

residents, or 8.6 percent of the city's labor force in 1950 (see Table 8).

32

1940 1950 1960 1970

Professional, Technical 943 1,788 3,414 5,608

Proprietors, Managers, Officials 1,339 2,213 2,565 3,393

Clerical and Sales 1,397 2,963 5,088 7,922

Craftsmen and Foremen 1,090 2,409 4,004 4,241

Service 1,205 2,045 3,387 6,763

Farm Managers, Laborers, Foremen 3,606 3,359 2,609 2,437

Laborers (except farm), Operatives 1,757 3,138 4,104 5,323

Occupation Not Reported 87 174 1,765 0

TOTAL EIM1PLOYED 11,424 18,089 26,936 35,687

Source: U.S. Census

1940 1950 1960 1970

San Luis Obispo County 15.88 27.2 55.13 73.8

State of California 4.4.5 77.2 158.3 256.2
Chart 3: San Luis Obispo County I'opulatioii, 1940-1970 o San Luis Obispo A Arroyo Grande D Atascadero A Bayvood-Los Osos o Carnbria ---l-----Cayucos ------ GroverCity -----Morro Bay Nipomo - - -0- - - Oceano 4( Paso Rubles )( Pisnio Beach Source: U.S. Census Communities only appear on this graph if popuIaions are over 1000.
Table 8: Tourism employment as percentage of labor force, 195O-1970-

* Indicates data not available

Employment by tourism establishments was just one aspect of this industry's

growing importance; hotel bed taxes and visitor purchases of services and goods

were other ways in which the economic stake in scenic beauty and recreational

amenities were increasing. Although SLO had the largest absolute number of

tourist employees, other communities too small (i.e. under 1000 residents) to have

their tallies reported by 1950 census documents were also becoming increasingly

dependent on tourism. Pismo Beach, incorporated in 1946 (Lee. et al. 1977), was well

.s 1,,-... i-h.-. ,..,-,.-,-. r.f +l,c F' 'JJi LLIJILC'.J. LJ 111 .JL.LL iLJ V C V Ci LLLL/'..0 1.17, ii .JLLL Li L fJ'JL VV (ii. LL F' L.iL.JJ_LL'...L '.'-

weekend driving vacation (Wilson 1992). The community occupied a niche as a

working-class boardwalk town, in contrast to the more natural attractions of the

neighboring state beach. A local newspaper editor remembers, "Pismo has always

been kind of run down. I came over here when I was a kid; I used to come over and

spend the summers, and it was kind of a funky seacoast town." Other communities

like Paso Robles became highway stop-avers, aided by the county's midway position

between San Francisco and Los Angeles (Hall 1960).

Another illustration of tourism's growing importance can be found in

comparison to jobs in extractive industries. We have developed an indicator of

dependence on extractive industries compared to tourism - an industry that

depends on an "intact" earth. We call it the "Extract-Intact Ratio." It is the ratio of

county employment in the sectors of 1.) mining, 2) petroleum and 3) chemical and

allied occupations, on the one hand, compared to county employment in the sectors

of 1) eating and drinking establishments and 2) lodging. We have plotted these

ratios across time, from 1940 forward: the higher the ratio, the greater the

dependence on mining compared to tourism (see Chart 4: The Extract/Intact Ratio,

San Luis Obispo County Compared to State and Region). In San Luis Obispo

15These data underestimate tourism employment for small corrurnunities, since 1950 and 1960 census data

include hotels, eating and drinking places, and recreation and entertainment employment for places

with populations greater than 10,000, but only recreation and entertainment for less than 10,000. Note

also that 1970 data includes eating and drinking places plus recreation and entertainment, but no hotels;

therefore. tourism employment from this year is generally underestimated.

34

1950 1960 1970

Arrnvc, Crrnde ------I- ii

Atascadero 1.1 0.9 2.6

Morro Bay 1.3

Paso Robles 1.1 1.2

San Luis Obispo 8.6 4.0 5.7

Source: U.S. Census.
100.00% 120.00% 140.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 0.00% Chart 4: T1'Iie ExtractllLllact Ratio Saiii Luis Obispo County Compared to Stale and Region J 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 197() A San Luis Obispo - Ventura 0 Santa Barbara - -X -State Ave. Source: U.S. Census establishments - a proxy (or the tourism industry. The Extract/Intact Ratio compares the numbers of jobs in mining, chemical/allied, and petroleum to jobs generated by eating, drinking and lodging
County, this ratio indicates that intact jobs have always outnumbered extract jobs by

at least 5 to 1 since 1940, a magnitude greater than that found in Santa Barbara and

Ventura Counties or the state as a whole.

Education became another growth industry in this period. Until the postwar

era, residents regarded Cal Poly as a "local school," and the predominance of local

students brought threats from the state to close its doors for not meeting its

statewide educational mission. In 1929, Cal Poly switched from coed to a men's

college, and the Depression brought renewed concerns that the state would close the

school. Immediately following World War II, Cal Poly President Julian McPhee

(also the chief of the state's Bureau of Agricultural Education) presided over

remarkable growth in campus enrollment and the expansion of curricula in

agriculture and other programs; he also arranged for the campus to become a Naval

Flight Preparatory School to serve military personnel, with the school expanding to

serve returning Gis (Krieger 1990: 100, 105).

Signs of growth elsewhere in the county began appearing in the 1950s. In

1953, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) built a 1,030 megawatt power plant in Morro

Bay. While the unsightliness of its three 450 foot smoke stacks would become a

source of controversy for those residents seeking to make the community a tourist

and recreation destination, a recent local Chamber of Commerce brochure asserts

that the plant "would eventually provide the tax base for Morro Bay's

incorporation" in 1964. Inland from Morro Bay, the community of Atascadero

received a boost in 1954 with the opening of the California Men's Colony, a lowsecurity prison, initially housing 1,400 older felons.16 Another prominent public

institution in Atascadero was its mental hospital, which in 1960 maintained a staff

of 400 and an annual payroll of $1,200,000 (Krieger 1990). The gradual increase in

coastal tourism and education and the opening of the Colony and mental

institution represented the growing economic influence of two important economic

resources in the county: public employment and the county's natural amenities.

Oil in the county: New developments, diminishing presence

Following World War II, San Luis Obispo County onshore oil production

reached new peaks, and gas production commenced, beginning with the 1950

opening of the Russell Ranch oil and gas field in the Cuvama Valley. The potential

for oil in the Cuyama Valley (part of which lies in San Luis Obispo County) was

discovered two years earlier when the Norris Oil Company struck there and began

producing 50 barrels a day. Subsequently, the Richfield Oil Corporation (later

ARCO) bought 90 percent of the acreage, took over the orris lease, and began

Its inmates would later include Black Panther F-Iuey Newton. Watergate participants John Mitchell

and Robert Haldernan, and psychedelic guru Timothy Leary; the latter would escape the Colony with

ILW ILI1J Ut iue eLite1I1Lt11 tL .i1. 17/I).

36
drilling its own wells in the valley. By the summer, new wells brought forth oil

every few days (to be shipped to a Wilmington refinery), and Richfield paid the

landowner $1000 a day in royalties (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964: 50). The

Arroyo Grande Valley also continued to produce crude; in 1949 a well at Oak Park

came in to become the heaviest find to date in the county (San Luis Obispo County

Library clipping file: Petroleum').

Following this expanded development, San Luis Obispo County recorded

over 3.7 million barrels of oil produced in 1952, setting a record high in oil

production in the county that still stands (see Chart 5: San Luis Obispo County

Onshore Oil Production, 1945-1968). Additionally, county gas production would

reach a record high in 1957 of 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas. However, although

sigi-iificant, these figures pale in comparison to onshore oil and gas production in

either Santa Barbara or Ventura Counties, roughly ten times that of San Luis Obispo

County during this period.'7 Although San Luis Obispo County oil and gas

production would again surge briefly (especially during 1969-72 and 1981-82), a

continuing general decline in production meant even less significant oil

development for the county.

Paralleling this gradual downturn of onshore production, Port San Luis also

declined and could no longer claim to be "the busiest in the west.' The port

apparently fell into disrepair, although it was still central to the countys fishing

industry. Tn 1954, local businessmen formed the Port San Luis Harbor District to

promote economic activity in the port, and the district gradually upgraded its

facilities (Lee, et al. 1977).

The low volume of oil development meant that oil workers could never

become a pervasive social presence in the county. However, in a few places like

Avila and Shandon, this scenario was not the case, at least for certain periods.

Shandon oil families composed such a significant proportion of the town's small

population during this time that they were given (by unwritten agreement of the

Shandon Unified School District) their own representative to the school board; one

Shandon resident recalled, "Before the [oil company facilities] were automated

maybe a third or a quarter of the children in the school were from there' (Hatch

1979: 235). In Avila, at least before the war, the company provided employee

housing programs, later giving workers the choice of purchasing or leaving the

properties (Farris 1994: 2).

17 1952 marked a record year in Santa Barbara County too, with 38.6 million barrels of oil thanks to the

simultaneous development of the South Cuyama field, adjacent to the Russell Ranch field but across

the countv border. As these figures suggest, onshore oil production in Santa Barbara County was always

greater than in San Luis Obispo County, by a magnitude of at least 5 times, approximately, through

i%7. To extend the comparison. Ventura County's Oi production was even greater (with the exception

of two years); it posted a record high in 1955 with 58.3 million barrels and WpiciUv exceeded San Luis

Obispo County production by a magnitude of 8 times through 1967.
1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 3,500,000 4,000,000 500,0000 tfl j If) Ir) In If) In In a C' CN th Annual Reports of Oil and Gas Supervisor Source: California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil and Gas. Onslioje 01] Production, 1945-1968 Chait 5: San Luis Obispo County
But even with a strong presence in numbers, oil employment typically meant

a mobile life, as employees and their families were transferred in two to five year

shifts along a company's circuit of regional oil facifities. This transitory life was

characteristic of oil employment patterns in the county (Hatch 1979: 30). For most

oil employees who worked and lived in San Luis Obispo County during any one

period, company transfers relocated them to other oil towns in the fri-counties, or,

as was more often the case, to the Central Valley. The names of these oil towns can

be found indirectly, for instance, in data from the Shandon Unified School District.

Records of student birthplaces from 1968 to the present indicate that these children

were predominantly born in "oil towns1' outside the county (Bakersfield, Fresno,

Taft, Tracy, Lemore, Avenal, and Santa Paula) (Hatch 1979). While the number of

oil family children in this data is too small to conclude any statistical significance, by

indicating where these few oil employees were located at a more or less random

point in their careers (i.e. during the birth of their children), it illustrates the social

and professional predominance of the Central Valley (and, in the case of Santa

Paula, Ventura County) in the lives of oil workers and their families in at least one

San Luis Obispo County oil town.

These patterns held back oil families' participation in local civic life, even

though relations between "old-time" residents and transitory oil families were

harmonious. This does not mean that communities such as Shandon did not

respect and appreciate their oil industry neighbors, but as the school district

birthplace data indicates, most of these oil families were not born and raised in San

Luis Obispo County - a defining characteristic of "belonging" to a community in

many small, rural towns (Hatch 1979: 135). 18 As changing economic and social

realities in San Luis Obispo County moved some industries (particularly Cal Poly

and tourism) to the forefront, the oil industry would increasingly be seen by many

as inconvenient, incompatible, or threatening. With no local leaders or

communities to argue persuasively on its behalf, the oil industry would be

associated with a development path that residents and govermnent jurisdictions

would reject with greater force in. the coming decades.

Tourism, public employment hit full stride

Growth in tourism employment from 1960 to 1970 (see Table 8) reflects the

extent to which tourism was gradually becoming a motor of the county's economy.

The county's tourist era began in earnest in 1958 when the Hearst Corporation

18 The rse of Shandon is also notable for the existence of a civic structure (e.g. definitive community

principles, criteria for leadership, the community's division into "establishment" and "peripheri

groups) prior to the establishment of Unocal's pumping station facilities. A logical condusion from

Hatch's (1979) research there is that in those communities where no civic structure has yet been

solidified - and this may characterize Avila and the oil towns of northern Santa Barbara County - oil

employees can influence its formation. This would be a "civic" counterpart to the economic influence

described by Foster (1%O) as the "founder's effect."

39
donated Hearst's Castle to the state. Already the subject of much public interest,

Hearsts Castle brought national attention to San. Luis Obispo County as a tourist

destination (Lee, et al. 1977) and helped fuel growth of the county's coastal

communities. In its first years as a tourist attraction, however, Hearst's Castle was

stifi only accessible through local roads via the small town of Cambria. This

changed in 1964 with the completion of Highway 1, which connected San Luis

Obispo to Big Sur and other coastal attractions in neighboring Monterey County.

The scenic highway not only improved tourist accessibility to Hearst's Castle but

became a tourist destination in itself, as it linked the county's coastal towns, beaches,

and monuments into a larger constellation of scenic attractions along the state's

coast (Hamilton 1974). Highway 1 aJso gave tourism boosters in Morro Bay the

impetus to establish new coastal monuments. In 1964, Morro Bay State Beach and

its Museum of Natural History were established, followed in 1968 by the designation

of Morro Rock, the "Gibraltar of the Pacific," as a California historical landmark

(Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce brochure).

Additionally, the expansion of state education and other public institutions'9

marked an era in which the proportion of non-military public employees in San

Liii Obispo County would reach magnitudes unmatched elsewhere in the tncounties (although Ventura County has recently come close). Education and other

public institutions like city and county governments, CalTrans and Atascaderos

mental hospital and men's colony have provided a non-cyclical stability to the

county's labor force. Moreover, as the reputation of the county's quality of life

circulated outside its borders, public jobs in the county became increasingly

attractive; as many informants within county government have attested, the quality

of life served to compensate the lesser wages they earned here in comparison to

similar jobs outside the county. Consequently, public employees effectively grew

into an interest group seeking to maintain the county's quality of life and natural

amenities.

Cal Poly's influence

Cal Poly quickly became the dominant force in SLO's development, as

dramatic postwar enrollment surges began changing the city's demographic

character. From 1945 to 1968, the student body grew from 819 to 9,711 and was at

least partially responsible for the growth of the 18-34 year old age group to 40 percent

of all city residents by the end of the 1960s. In addition to this demographic impact.

SLO benefited from Cal Poly's cultural and intellectual resources, resulting in a

culturally sophisticated feel for an otherwise small and geographically isolated

community. Furthermore, as a major SLO employer during this period, Cal Poly's

economic "multiplier" effect was strongly felt; its faculty and students served as

19 Cuesta College was established in l%2a.sa junior college after servthg 46 years as a post-graduate

WV lEUU W JctIL LUI '.JtJ1JU I 1III .JLIIUUI tL I. 1 // ).

40
consumers who helped to sustain the local economy and keep small, independent

businesses afloat. This stability that Cal Poly and other public institutions provided

helped SLO avoid a boom and bust cycle, perhaps serving to reinforce sentiments in

favor of planned growth and protecting its quality of life.

Under its strong-willed president, Julian McPhee, Cal Poly's influence over

SLO was at first limited by, among other things, his dictum that his faculty (in fact,

hand-picked by him) were not permitted to play a role in local politics. The Telegyuin -

Tribune's editor of this period recalled McPhee's operating philosophy:

The city of San Luis Obispo and the townspeople in San Luis Obispo can't do

anything for Cal Poly. Only the state can do something for Cal Poly. And so

there was almost an invisible curtain between the campus and the city. Of

course, citizens were welcome to the campus, the campus had football flames

concerts and so forth, but there was no attempt to meld the two together.

But post-war campus growth had inevitable local consequences. The college

added a graduate education program in 1949; the enrollment of women resumed in

1956. By the time of its 1961 accreditation into the California State University system

(then the Ce1ifornia state "college" system), Cal Poly had exparLded into liberal arts

and added several master's programs. McPhee was also required by the state to hire

instructors with advanced degrees and grant tenure to accomplished faculty,

apparently an innovation for the institufion. As a result of the reforms, a new

intellectual philosophy emerged at Cal Poly. While the campus still instructed

students to "learn by doing" (the official campus motto), its faculty were increasingly

composed of scientists rather than industry personnel - the prior practice. Faculty

from this new background would now be abreast of the scientific debates and

concerns within industries rather than simply espouse industry perspectives, as the

later protests over the siting of a nuclear power plant controversy would

demonstrate. As faculty gradually entered community politics, this outlook would

influence the tone of the county's development.

In 1967, after McPhee's retirement, the university's influence over SLO and

the rest of San Luis Obispo County would only grow. Still heavily based in

agriculture and, increasingly, engineering and architecture, the campus profile was

very different from other institutions experiencing radical upheavals of the late

1960s. One faculty spouse remembers Governor Ronald Reagan received a warm

response at Cal Poly during a late 1960s visit. But Cal Poly has also facilitated a great

deal of town-gown interaction that continues to the present. The school's

20 Well aware of the academic independence that these changes would allow facult, McFhee made

the required reforms only reluctantly; one Cal Poly historian daims he told faculty at a 19o2 meeting,

"lf I had known this was going to be forced on me, hail of you wouldn't be here now.' 1 Cal Poly informants attest that community service counts significantly for faculty promotion, which

may explain why Cal Poly faculty are very active in their community, especially in comparison to the

other malor university in the tn-counties, the University of California at Santa Barbara.

41

or
traditional "learn by doing" philosophy sends Cal Poly students into the county to

do student projects - essentially public service work performed for free or marginal

wages - in a variety of settings. As a result, students have become integrated into

SLO (as well as other county towns, to a lesser extent) during their stay at Cal Poly in

more ways than in ordinary- "college towns."22 Reciprocally, SLO residents interact

with Cal Poly this way and receive the benefits of its "learn by doing" philosophy.

Cal Poly's architecture department, currently among the largest in the

country, ifiustrates this aspect of the university's influence. Schools of architecture

are usually found in big cities; by comparison1 Cal Poly's provides for a very large

potential impact in SLO, due to its location in the small town. As in other schools

of the university, architectural students work on individual student projects (as

teams and as classes), most of which are local to the region. Even when the results

of student projects are not dramatic (or are never built at all, a more common

situation), there are still consequences. The students get to know the town and

experience firsthand its very specific conditions. The local client (usually a nonprofit organization of some sort) gains a sense of the complexity of architecture and

some notion of the process. This all seems a very positive experience, perhaps

building a respect for architectural expertise into the fabric of the town's minds as

well as its buildings, and further encourages the high design standards which

continue to characterize SLO today. Among other accomplishments, the influence

of Cal Poly's architecture department would eventually lead to the establishment of

a SLO architectural review board (with university faculty always serving as

members), yet another way that the high quality of town planning and architecture

is reproduced in SLO.

The Mission Plaza

The creation of SLO's downtown Mission Plaza in the l960s marked an

important turning point, not just in the city's but in the county's history. Much of

SLO's physical plant and downtown business remained since from the Depression

and World War II, and the San Luis Creek continued to wind its way through the

downtown and in front of the city's Mission. However, by the 1.950s, the city's

downtown had become a site of contention between two factions of the city, one

advocating a redevelopment to foster ambitions of 'California's Next Big City,"

another seeking a way to enhance existing amenities. A group of downtown

businessmen had long urged the city to increase downtown parking and to request

the state highway department to extend Highway 101 through the downtown area

alongside the Mission, paving over the creek in the process. A different vision of

downtown was advocated by the Mission Plaza Committee, a group comprised of

various civic organizations, Cal Poly faculty (including future campus president

According to Cal Poly informants, many graduates seek to stay in the area and are first in the local

job queue for local emplove, many of whom are themselves Cal Poly graduates.

42
Robert E. Kennedy, as well as several members of the architectural school), a few

other downtown businesspeople, the Telegnim -Tribune, and many SLO residents, in

which the city would establish a green plaza in front of the Mission (where a garage

then stood), close some streets to automobile traffic, restore the downtown creek

banks, and encourage adjacent busmesses to open back entrances to the plaza

(McKeen 1988 131-134)

For the next 12 years, the Mission Plaza Committee held fund-raising bazaars,

commissioned plaza blueprints (many by Cal Poly architectural students), and

lobbied that the city move toward implementing its Mission Plaza plans The

improvement of downtown SLO became a heated issue, and the debate between

parking advocates and the Mission Plaza Committee frequently took the appearance

of now-common debates around environmental regulations and private property

rights One comnuttee member recalled the siatenient of Charles Maino, a local

construction company owner who discovered the Price Canyon oil field, who

opposed the efforts of the Mission Plaza Comnuttee

If these citizens take over downtown they'll regulate everything The whole

economy could get unbalanced. Right now San Luis Obispo is stable and strong,

serving the farmers with a balance ot downtown ousmesses Why do we need a

creek in the city' We need parking and need it badly I say, cover it right now

(McKeen 1988 135)

After several years straddling the two sides, SLO s mayor joined two city

council members and the business community in advocating the parking plans

PoliUri1 fallout within the city ensued, most notably, Cal Poly architectural faculty

member Ken Schwartz was dismissed m 1967 from his post on the city planning

commission for having supported several plaza proposals The turmng point came

at a 1967 city council meeting, m which three Cal Poly architecture students

presented the results of their city-sponsored study of the downtown question. After

they began their presentation with a pedestrian-only scenario, the city mayor

accused them of failing to meet the terms of their city-funded contract (in which a

parking plan had to be studied also) and demanded they return the city's money.

SLO's former city attorney rose to their defense, the city council meeting ended in

chaos, and afterwards the Mission Plaza Committee began a final and successful

petition campaign for a referendum to resolve the issue. SLO's residents voted by a

two-to-one margin to create the Mission Plaza and in 1969 elected Professor Ken

Schwartz of the Cal Poly architecture department mayor of SLO.

The Mission Plaza campaign produced what one auto club travel book called

"one of California's most attractive town squares" (Austerman 1988: 46) (see Photo

6). Less tangibly, it represented not only the victory of an environmentally

conscious development path, whereby SLO would plan for the protection of its

scenic, small-town way of life, but also the passing of the political torch from an

43
44

--- --- r'

- 3 -' / 4I' F.- .J_.- -I.--- - WL

Photo 6: San Luis Obispo Mission Plaza. Built in 1968 after 11 years of local debate, the

downtown pedestrian plaza represents the victory of an environmentally consdnus development

path for San Luis Obispo. The input of Cal Poly faculty, staff, and students was instrumental to

plazas construction; architecture professor Ken Schwarz was subsequently elected mayor. Photo

provided by San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce.
older, quality-of-life-minded generation of community leaders (found largely in

citizens groups like the Monday Club, the Lions Club, and the Soroptimists) to the

Cal Poly generation. Following Ken Schwartz, other individuals associated with the

university would be elected to city councils or the County Board of Supervisors (e.g.

Richard Krejsa, faculty spouse Evelyn Delaney); others would be appointed to

planning commissions and architectural review boards in SLO and neighboring

communities like Pismo Beach. Still others would become active in local politics

(e.g. on mayoral election campaigns) or in more direct ways, especially in the

campaign to stop CalTrans' plans to widen Highway 101 over La Cuesta grade and,

in a very major way, efforts in the 1970s to stop the Diablo Canyon nuclear power

plant.

Cal Poly students would go on to staff community organizations, testify at

hearings and meetings, and use the technical language effectively. In most cases, the

Cal Poly generation would bring a characteristically methodical and

environmentally conscious approach to issues that gradually shaped political

discourse in the city arid county, eventually moving it to the left of most

governments in the state and nation. The significance of this new political

discourse for offshore oil drffling would become apparent in the 1970s, during the

Diablo Canyon controversy, and the 1980s, when federal plans for outer continental

shelf (OCS) oil and gas development were greeted with tremendous opposition.

Rumblings of offshore oil exploration

With declining onshore oil activity, and the issue of offshore oil raised only

sporadically in the years following the establishment of federal OCS jurisdiction,

San Luis Obispo County went its way with little regard for the industry. The biggest

burst of oil activity during this era was the 1955 opening of Union Oil's Nipomo

Mesa refinery to process heavy crude from the Santa Maria Valley into three

unfinished products: lighter oils (piped to Union's Oleum refinery), coke (shipped

by rail to Stockton, largely for export to Japan), and asphalt (used by a neighboring

asphalt company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Union Oil). By 1965, Union's

Nipomo Mesa refinery employed 80 workers; approximately two-thirds resided in

the Five Cities area while the rest lived across the county line in Santa Maria. Thus,

the refinery employees initially constituted a significant labor force which helped

establish a pattern of pro-oil support in Nipomo, Oceano, and Arroyo Grande,

although their presence in these communities would decrease in later decades. The

refinery also reinforced the decreasing importance of Port San Luis to Union Oil's

operations, now completely bypassed by both the Nipomo Mesa refinery and the

Central Valley pipeline (completed in 1957) (&mMaria Times, October29, 1965). In

-ri _i.. '_ 1flr _____J..__ _ __...__I TT____1 ._ _.__L__ ._. .___L.-_. C1._.- i-.--. s-L...-.- /'Af.lI-. -...,4

- I fl pipiiiit 17.3/ LUL1[)LtL1U11 JI1iULLU L)UULiL 11.3 £UUI Rb LUII LLL LIJ LL1 \ LLY .J1' Taylor 1958: 246).

45
a separate development, Union began storing oil recovered offshore at the Avila

Beach tank farm during this period.

In the 1960s, offshore oil development in the Santa Barbara Channel reached

new magnitudes of production, and nearby offshore exploration of the Santa Maria

Basin began sensitizing the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors to the

prospect of offshore drilling-related activities for their county. Supported by various

local businessmen, supervisors' primary interest apparently was in the prospect of

more local revenue. One county supervisor expressed the sentiment: "Hey, this is a

business deal; we can make some money here. Let's get our hand in the oil packet,

arid why not drill it Think of all of the things we could have with this money." He

reported that the stumbling block for local approval of offshore oil drilling during

this time was the failed negotiation of a revenue sharing program to compensate

the coastal communities that would be most affected by the industri1i7ation of the

coast. While much of the county remained unconcerned about offshore oil drilling

(long perceived as "Santa Barbara County's issue," according to several informants),

traditional politics at the Board of Supervisors seemed oblivious to the kind of

reaction that a solid prospect for offshore oil would generate.

46
IV. The Environmental Era (1969-present)

In the contemporary era, San Luis Obispo County moved further away from

its early rural character, although agriculture remained significant in new ways. As

Tables 9 through 11 indicate, education levels in the county finally caught up with

state averages, and the ratio of population to farms continued to increase, and

immigrant and non-white populations also increased steadily. These reflect larger

trends in the state's sod.al structure: the bulk of the population has moved away

from farm labor even as a poorer and largely Mexican migrant workforce has

emerged to work in the harvesting of new, 1abor-intnsive crops like wine grapes,

seeds and vegetable transplants, and more standard fruit and vegetable crops (all of

which began eciping animal products and field crops by the 1970s as the county's

most valuable agricultural products)24 Meanwhile, non-farm occupational sectors

generally expanded during this period. Clerical/sales, service, and

professional/technical occupations have led this general growth, while

craftsmen/foremen and non-farm laborer/ operative occupational growth has lagged

behind, and farm occupations have diminished in relative importance (see Tables 9-

11).

Table 9: County sociodemographic characteristics, 1960-1990

* Indicates data not available

24 Other shifts in county agriculture include increasing large scale irrigation, greater mechanization,

arid a rise in absentee ownership - all aspects reflected statewtde Lfl the ntensthcaton of California

agribusiness (see Scheuring 1983).

47

1960 1970 1980 1990

Total Population 81,044 105,690 155,435 217,162

% Foreign Born 5.92 5.00 5.81 7.47

% Nonwhite 3.72 5.62 9.68 10.84

% Males 53.16 52.6 50.96 51.6

Household Size 2.95 2.82 2.51 2.53

Median School Years,

Adult Males

11.2 12.3 12.8

Median School Years,

Adult Females

11.7 12.3 12.8

% Unemployed 5.1 6.5 6.9 5.2

Source: U.S. Census.
Table 10: County employment by occupation1 1960-1990

Source: U.S. Census

In the period from 1969 to the present, the population of San Luis Obispo

County continued to grow at the same rate since the 1940s, more than doubling

every 20 years. By 1980, population growth had created seven distinct tiers of size in

the county (see Chart 6: San Luis Obispo County population, 1960-1990). With

34,252 residents, SLO was the largest city and twice as large in population as the next

biggest city, Atascadero. Hovering just above or below the 10,000 resident mark were

cities in the third tier: Arroyo Grande, Baywood-Los Osos, Paso Robles, Morro Bay,

and Grover City. Populations around 5,000 characterized cities in the fourth tier:

Pismo Beach, Nipomo, and Oceano. The sixth tier included Cambria, Cayucos, and

at the bottom tier could be found those (usually unincorporated) communities

under 1,000 residents (and thus unreported by census data), such as Avila Beach,

Shandon, and Cholame.

48

Table 11: Ratio of population to number of farms, 1960-1990

1960 1970 1980 1990

Professional, Technical 3,414 5,608 10,235 18,011

Proprietors, Managers, Officials 2,565 3,393 6,022 10,509

Clerical and Sales 5,088 7,922 15,072 25,889

Craftsmen and Foremen 4,004 4,241 9,232 11,975

Service 3,387 6,763 10,826 16,366

Farm Managers, Laborers, Foremen 2,609 2,437 4,231 4,804

Laborers (except farm), Operatives 4,104 5,323 7,122 9,863

Occupation Not Reported 1,765 0 0 0

TOTAL EM1LOYED 26,936 35,687 62,740 97,417

Source: U.S. Census

1960 1970 1980 1990

San Luis Obispo County 1U .1 1u. I

State of California 158.3 256.2 289.7 357.6
30,000 35,000 40,0(K) 45,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 - 5,000 San Luis Obispo A Anroyo Grande 0 Atascadero k--- Baywood-Los Osos o Cambria --+---Cayucos --Ifl-- GroverCity ---e---MorroBay Niporno - - -0- - - Oceano 4( Paso Robles >( Pismo Beach Source: U.S. Census Communities only appear on this graph if populations are over 1000. Chart 6: Sai Luis Obispo County Population, 1960-1990 1960 1970 1980 1990
During this period, San Luis Obispo County's relationship with and attitudes

toward the oil industry took dramatic new turns from the previous era, following

the 1969 Santa Barbara Channel oil spill. Actual and potential oil projects onshore

and off became increasingly visible to (and a topic of debate among) county officials,

environmentalists, other leaders, and many local residents. Somewhat separately

from these oil issues, the "environmental era" marked the time in which San Luis

Obispo County became the political, cultural, and socioeconomic place that it

currently is, an evolution confirmed by our research informants. For these reasons,

we divide this last segment of our report into two sections. First, we examine

contemporary conditions, including sociodemographics, the econdmy, the role of

media, community structures, and certain watershed events. We then resume our

history of oil protest, using the contemporary profile from the first section to inform

our examination of the county's relationship to the oil industry, particularly

attitudes toward offshore drilling.

A. Contemporary San Luis Obispo County: A profile

The question guiding this section is: What factors are important in

understanding San Luis Obispo County's opposition to offshore oil drilling?

Political orientation does not appear to provide a simple explanation; like elsewhere

in the tn-counties, San Luis Obispo County's electorate has shifted from mostly

Democratic (traditionally the pro-environment party) to mostly Republican

(traditionally the pro-business party) in the same decade that opposition to oil has

solidified (see Table 12).

Table 12 County registration in political parties

Source: San Luis Obispo County Elections Recorder

Clearly, political party affiliation does not explain the different interests and stakes

that residents and communities have in either supporting or opposing offshore oil

development. Therefore, in order to give more detailed consideration of the

county's economic and sociodemographic diversity, we classify San Luis Obispo

County communities into five different types of places: reth-e,nentwrnin unities, tourist

towns, working-dass towns, m iddle-dass suburbs', and the city of Sait Luis Cbispo (which

combines aspects of the other categories as well as its own unique attributes).

50

year Democrat Republican other

1980 47.5% 40.4% 12.1%

1990 40.9% 46.7% 12.4%
Retirement communities

The seaside towns of Cambria, Cayucos, Morro Bay and Pismo Beach became

retirement communities as retired individuals and serdor citizens moved in large

numbers to these coastal communities during the 1960s and 70s. Their numbers in

these places were disproportionately large in comparison to the rest of the county; by

1970 and continuing to the present, residents aged 65 and older made up

approximately 25 percent of these coastal communities' population, a concentration

of elderly not found elsewhere in the county (see Table 13).

Table 13: Adults 65+ years old as percentage of total population, 1970-1990

(Retirement communities shown in italics)

Source: U.S. Census

While neither uniformly conservative nor wealthy, these citizens tend to

share a common interest in keeping their communities amenities and quality of

life in the same shape as when they moved there. As a result, many older people in

retirement communities become quite active in local city councils and other

governmental forums where they can promote this agenda, occasionally

challenging development advocates. Importantly, retirement communities share

traits with another community type in San Luis Obispo County: tourist towns.

Tourist towns

After the 1950s, tourism grew in three distinct county regions: the southern

coastline (Pismo State Beach and the city of Pismo Beach), the northern coastline

(Morro Bay, Cambria, Cayucos, and small communities near Hearst Castle), and the

D.I\ UI motels, bed and breakfast LLJ. I iteie i 1[I11LULL LUtA5L1L L'1LO

51

1970 1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 12.0 17.6 19.9

Atascadero 13.0 11.8 11.2

Baywood-Los Osos 19.8 15.9 17.2

Cambria 25.1 21.8

"'-6..'

Grover City 15.4 14.8 122

Morro Bay 22.5 23.6 25.9

Nipomo 5.4 11.8 13.3

Oceano 12.9 13.3 11.4

Paso Robles 12.8 13.5 14.1

Pismo Beach 19.2 22.7 23.8

San Luis Obispo 9.4 11.5 12.2
inns) in the north county (predominantly Paso Robles and Atascadero), but this has

consistently fallen behind lodging sales in the three areas noted above3

The existing data on tourism employment has been uneven and inconsistent,

but the most recent and complete figures confirm the growing extent of tourism's

importance (see Table 14). In 1980, recreation, entertainment, and food and drink

establishments provided employment for 5-10 percent of the labor force residing in

(but not necessarily working in) Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Baywood-Los Osos,

Grover City, Mono Bay, Oceano, and Paso Robles; in 1990, tourism would employ 5-

10 percent of the labor force in all census-tracked communities over 1,000 residents

except Paso Robles (due to labor force increases outpacing absolute increases in

tourism employment).26 Table 14 also reveals the importance of tourism to

residents living in communities not so well known as tourist destinations (e.g. Paso

Robles, Atascadero, Arroyo Grande, Oceano, and Nipomo), suggesting that more

communities than just tourist towns hold a growing economic stake in the county's

scenic and recreational amenities.

One report (UCSB Economic Development Forecast 1995: 46) notes that hotel! motel room sales have

uniformly increased throughout San Luis Obispo County from 1983-1991 but at different rates. In the

SLO-Pismo Beach-Morro Bay-Arroyo Grande-Grover Beach area, hotel/motel room sales rose from

over $42 million in 1983 to a high of over $80 million by 1991, whereas north county sales rose from

approximately 521 million to $30 million in that same period.

26 1980 census data on tourism employment in Cambria and Cayucos is unavailable; it is quite probable

that tourism had employed 5-10% of their labor forces by the time of the 1980 census.

52
Table 14: Tourism employment as percentage of labor force, l97Ol99O'

(Tourist towns shown in italics)

* T_i__L__ i_J_ mwciue uai riui vaiiavie

These proportions of tourism employment do not take into account the

"multiplier effect" of tourist employees' expenditures that ripple into other sectors

(e.g. shopping). Furthermore, in addition to property tax and sales tax from tourists,

communities like Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and SLO impose bed taxes on lodging

which contribute substantial revenues for the city coffers; these revenues in turn

make possible physical improvements like beach access stairways, public restrooms,

showers, and expanded parking lots. For example, Pismo Beach collected $2.58

million in fiscal year 1994-95 from its 10 percent bed tax rate, one-tenth of which (or

$258,000) was earmarked by the city council for "economic improvements"

pertaining to its tourism industry. The end result is that thriving tourist towns

pursue economic activities that facilitate the further development of their tourism

industry and encourage residents to cast their support for initiatives that can

promote tourism. In such cases, residents are likely to oppose other activities, such

as offshore oil drilling., that are perceived as detracting from the attractiveness of

their communities as tourist destinations, as county and city officials from tourist

towns have consistently attested.

As previously mentioned, in some cases retirement towns overlap tourist

towns, such as the cases of Pismo Beach and Morro Bay. The Pismo Beach Chamber

of Commerce president described the political frictions with tourist businesses that

can result in these cases: "Because [retirees] have got the time and money, they

V The census defines tounsm employment in 1970-1990 as ridents working in eating and dnnkrng

establishments, receation. and entertainment. The exdusion of hotels from this category means that

tourism emn!ovment is underestimated in those tourist towns with extensive toun.st !odthn. such as

Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and SLO.

53

1970 1980 100fl .I._, JJ

Arroyo Grande 6.0 7.4

Atascadero 2.6 6.2 6.6

Baywood-Los Osos * 7.8 7.0

Cambria * 18.0

Cayucos * 9.6

Grover City * * 8.7

Morro Bay 10.2 14.0

fpomo * * 7.0

Oceana * * 8.0

Paso Robles * 5.1 4.9

Pismo Beach * * 77

San Luis Obispo 5.7 8.8 12.7

Source: U.S. Census.
traditionally are the ones that get elected to the City Council. Since they don't want

to see growth here, they've made sure it doesn't take place.' Yet while some

internal political conflict may characterize those communities where retirees and

tourist businesses coexist, informants also indicate that both groups share a

common opposition to the industrialization of the coast (see Photo 7).

54
....uusI.l

Photo 7: City of Pismo Beach. A popular coastal tourist town, Pismo Beach is also the residence

of a significant retirement community. The city has been an unwavering opponent of offshore

drilling for fear of impacts to its tourism economy. Reprinted from Smith-Western Company; James

Blank photographer
Working-class towns

A third category of San Luis Obispo County communities is working-class

towns. These have the county's most affordable housing, the greatest

unemployment, and the lowest educational attainment. Other socioeconomic

characteristics that are regularly (if not consistently) found in San Luis Obispo

County's working-class towns include high poverty and a large foreign-born

population (typirally indicating an immigrant Mexican population). Such aspects

characterize Nipomo, Grover City, Oceano, and Paso Robles; they also characterize

many unincorporated communities like Shandon and Creston (for which

community population figures are not reported in census data).

Nipomo, Grover City, Oceano, and Paso Robles have reported the lowest

median housing values in the county since 1970 (see Table 15).

Table 15: Median housing values (in dollars), 1970-1990

(Working-dass towns shown in italics)

In 1980, the greatest unemployment in the county was reported in Oceano,

Nipomo, and Grover City; by 1990, Paso Robles replaced Grover City in the top three

unemployed communities (see Table 16),

56

1970 1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 18,100 75,500 207,700

Atascadero 17,300 77,200 199,600

Baywood-Los Osos 17,400 78,900 207,900

Cambria 18,600 91,400 277,200

Cayucos 17,800 88,200 280,300

Grov-r City 12,400 61,300 272,400

Morro Bay 18,200 76,000 224,700

Nipomo 15,400 65,400 188,600

Oceano 10,200 55,000 156,700

Paso Robles 16,400 64,500 154,500

Pismo Beach 18,800 86,800 293,000

San Luis Obispo 21,700 86,500 241,100

Source: U.S. Census
Table 16: Unemployed as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990

(Working-dass towns shown in italics)

In 1980, less than 10 percent of residents in Grover City, Nipomo, and Oceano

held B.A. degrees, indicating lowest levels of education in the county; Paso Robles

also showed a low level of education (see Table 17). Educational levels in workingclass towns have since risen, as have levels throughout San Luis Obispo County, but

they remain the lowest in these communities. By comparison, in 1990, over onethird of SLO adults held B A degrees

1970 1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 5.7 6.0 5.2

Atascadero 5.1. 6.3 4.0

Baywood-Los Osos 5.7 5.7 3.6

Cambria * 3.9 33

Cayucos * 2.4

Grover City 9.1 9.6 5.6

Morro Bay 3.9 8.9 3.8

Nipomo 9.6 11.2 6.4

Oceano 14.6 17.1 11.6

Paso RabIes 8.3 6.2 6.6

Pismo Beach 9 8.7 4.8

San Luis Obispo 6.8 5.5 5.7

Source: U.S. Census. * fo ,-1 f, ,,.f
Table 17: Adults age 25+ with B.A degree as percentage of total population,

1970-1990

(Working-class towns shown in italics)

* Indicates data not available

While the four working-class towns share a similarly low socioeconomic

status, they can be differentiated by the kinds of work in which their residents find

employment. Grover City has a light industrial economic base (e.g. auto mechanics,

light manufacturing); many residents work in the tourist industry elsewhere in the

county, particularly around neighboring Pismo State Beach. In 1980, 5.4 percent of

Grover City's labor force was employed in recreation, entertainment, or eating and

drinking places; this proportion increased to 8.7 percent in 1990 (greater, for

example, than tourism employment in Pismo Beach) (see Table 14). Even more

economic activity in Grover City is indirectly dependent upon the attraction of

tourists nearby; as the Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce president described,

"{Wlhen tourists come to [Pismo Beach], a small percentage of them are going to

have car problems, they're going to have this type problem; [Grover Beach} is where

we send them.

Oceano and Nipomo are bedroom communities (for the other Five Cities,

SLO, and especially Santa Barbara County's Santa Maria) with some of the longest

resident commute times in 1980 (see Table 20). Additionally, Nipomo is zoned for

heavy industry and currently houses a small Unocal oil refine . However, its

dependence on tourism is similar to Grover City's; notably, the proportion of

Nipomo's tourism labor force doubled from 1980 to 1990. By contrast, the oil

indus has never employed many residents in these workingdass towns. At its

2S In 1985, Union Oil of California officially changed its corporate name to Unocal. Where historically

accurate. WC Shall refer to the company by the latter name for the remainder rf this document.

1970 1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 10.8 16.8 19.4

Atascadero 7.7 16.6 20.6

Baywood-Los Osos 12.8 28.0 32.4

Cambna * 20.2 28.7

Cayucos * * 28.2

Grover City 4.0 9.7 15.2

Morro Bay 9.4 17.9 21.6

Nipomo 2.7 9.2 14.7

Oceano 2.0 7.1 10.8

Paso Rabies 7.0 14.1 15.6

Pismo Beach 15 18 25.5

San Luis Obispo 20.7 30.1 34.9

Source: U.S. Census.
peak in 1980, petroleum and mining employed 3.4 percent of the labor force in

Nipomo (which shows the greatest oil employment of the three south county

working-class towns), and by 1990 this proportion decreased to 1.2 percent. These

towns' economic reliance on industries that preserve, rather than exploit, the south

county's recreational amenities29 has been verified by the president of the Grover

City Chamber of Commerce (the only such organization in the three south county

working-class towns), who also spoke of a complementary social sentiment against

offshore oil drilling. As he explained, like their counterparts in retirement towns

and middle-class suburbs along the coast, many Grover City, Oceano and Nipomo

residents have chosen to live in these communities "because they don't want to see

[oil drilling] off their coastline."

By contrast, the history of the north county's Paso Robles has been

predominantly shaped by agriculture; this also holds true for the sparsely populated

north county (e.g. small working-class communities like Shandon and Creston)

which lies in the economic and geographic periphery of Paso Robles. Agriculture

here has become increasingly large-scale, labor-intensive, and mechanized; it will

likely continue to develop in this direction for the foreseeable future. The north

county also contains some of the fastest growing communities in San Luis Obispo

County. Paso Robles alone has witnessed remarkable growth; during the 1980s, its

population doubled to 18,500 residents, making the city leap from 5th to 3rd largest

in the county in the course of a decade (for individual community populations, see

Chart 6). In some of the north county communities, growing numbers of poor

migrant farmworking families and, more recently, commuter households have

faced low-income housing shortages, school over-crowding, and other impacts on

working-class town infrastructures (Haley forthcoming).

Paso Robles has also been the city in San Luis Obispo County with the most

residents working for the oil industry. By 1980, petroleum and mining activities

employed 4.4 percent of the city's labor force, dropping to 1.7 percent by 1990. (By

comparison,, tourism still employed more of Paso Robles' labor force during this

period.) Interviews with oil industry representatives and local officials have

indicated that many of these oil jobs are located in the state's Central Valley (e.g.

Bakersfield is "just over the hill" from Paso Robles via Highway 46) and other

locations outside of the county. Not surprisingly, oil receives its greatest support in

Paso Robles, where a modest economic dependence on the Central Valley's oil

industry is complemented by a general cultural affinity with the western lifestyle,

conservative politics, and economic ambitions that characterize Bakersfield, Fresno,

29 All propertY taxes derived from TJnocal's i\Iipomo refinery are gathered at the county level, since

Nipomo is an unincorporated city. Therefore, Nipomo shares any oil-related revenue with the rest of

the county, diminishing its economic dependence on oil activity within its borders.

59
and other Central Valley communities.3° (These aspects of San Luis Obispo

County's economic dependence on tourism and related "place-intact" industries, in

comparison to oil and other extractive industries, are illustrated in Chart 4: The

Extract! Intact Ratio, San Luis Obispo County Compared to State and Region.)

Researchers have long demonstrated a general inverse relation between

education and environmentalist sentiments, characterizing working-class

communities as less 'environmentalist" (e.g. Van Liere and Dunlap 1980). San Luis

Obispo County's two offshore drilling referenda in 1986 and 1988 revealed that

residents in the county's working-class towns were likeliest to support offshore

drilling., especially when compared to the strongly anti-oil (and better educated)

communities of SLO, Baywood-Los Osos, Cambria, Cayucos, and Morro Bay. Yet as

we have sought to show, the working-class towns of the south county should not be

generalized too simply with their northern counterparts, especially with regards to

political support for offshore drilling. Despite a common sociodemographic profile,

Grover City, Oceano, and Nipomo are different from Paso Robles in their growing

economic orientation to tourism and other industries that are not perceived to

threaten coastal amenities. The skepticism toward oil shown by important south

county institutions, such as the chamber of commerce and local newspaper (see

"County newspapers in the environmental era," below), also counters the otherwise

relative support that the oil industry receives in south county working-class towns.

Thus, while all of San Luis Obispo County's working-class towns are more or less

'pro-oil" in their political behavior, the different structural and economic factors at

work in north and south county suggest that oil faces increasingly divergent

prospects for support in the county s workmg-class towns

Middle-class suburbs

One of the countvs most remarkable developments is the rapid growth of the

middle-class suburbs - Bavwood-Los Osos, Arroyo Grande, and Atascadero - in the

last few decades. With each having over 10,000 residents by 1980, all three

communities occupy middle to near-high positions in the county's population

hierarchies. They are generally family-based and have the county's highest incomes

per household (near $35,000 in 1990); however, they slide down to middle tiers

when per capita income (which gives more weight to wealthy individuals not

living in households, such as the more affluent residents of the retirement towns).31

Baywood-Los Osos, Atascadero, and Arroyo Grande have middle range median

3° A Sliandon researcher acknowledged that the population is generally supportive of the oil indusy

(which has two pump stations located there) and offshore oil dnlling, on the infrequent occasion when

such issues are raised; in his two years in Shandon, he does not recall oil issues ever holding a

prominent place in local news and issues.

311990 census data on income per household and per capita income is used here since that is the earliest

census surrey with figures for all communities in the county.

60
housing values (see Table 15). In educational attainment, they differ; Baywood-Los

Osos had the second highest percentage of adults holding B.A. degrees (after SLO)

with 28 percent in 1980 moving up to 32 percent in 1990, while Arroyo Grande and

Atascadero had around 17 percent in 1980 and moved up to around 20 percent in

1990 (see Table 17). In this regard, it is probably important to note that Baywood-Los

Osos is a popular residence for Cal Poly faculty and staff that is adjacent to the

university via Highway 1 (see Figure 1), while Arroyo Grande and Atascadero have

retained the most agricultural remnants of any of the middle-dass suburbs. It

should also be noted that SLO shares many of these middle-class characteristics;

while this city is many respects the county s largest middle-class residence, SLO S

diversified character warrants a separate discussion below.

Many middle-dass wage-earners work in public institutions; notably, state

and local government employs a greater proportion of San Luis Obispo County's

labor force than in Santa Barbara or Ventura County (see Table 18).

Table 18: Government employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990

(Middle-class suburbs shown in italics)

Source: U.S. Census.

* Indicates data not available

Table 18 shows the predominance of government employees in the northern coastal

communities (Morro Bay, etc.) and SLO, indicating an important overlap between

tourist towns and middle-class suburbs. The influence of public employees on

count politics in general may be found, for example, in the county-wide defeat of

Proposition 13. This 1978 measure, which limits the taxes local governments can

raise without a taxpayer referendum, was approved statewide by wide margins.

Some locals attribute its extraordinary defeat in San Luis Obispo County to the

influence of public employees in the county, both as a voting bloc ensuring its own

61

1970 1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 23.0 15.3 14.6

Atascadero 36.7 22.7 26.0

Baywood-Los Osos 27.5 21.3 24.7

Cambria * 16.1. 19.6

Cayucos * * 23.4

Grover City 14.9 14.1 13.7

Morro Bay 20.2 16.1 18.6

Nipomo 10.3 11.3 14.9

Oceano 12.4 9.2. 12.5

Paso Robles 18.5 14.9 18.0

Pismo Beach 28.2 17.2 16.3

San Luis Obispo 34.6 27.6 22.5
economic stability and as a voice opposing limits on the ways that public agencies

can protect the county's quality of life.

As informants have regularly described, many middle-class families have

moved to San Luis Obispo County to take advantage of its relatively small-town

atmosphere and umque social amemties One former county supervisor and

enviránmentalist observed,

Many of [the newcomers] are refugees saying, 'My God, I've got to get out of L.A.'

or someplace else, and finally they get to someplace that's healthy, they can

breathe, they take 50 percent pay cuts, their kids can walk to school, and they

don't want to screw it up. There's other legions that are coming that say, 'Shh,

we made money in Sacramento Valley, we made money in Orange County, and

now this is the next place to harvest'

Many of the social amenities that middle-class suburbs are perceived to offer

come from the county's rural past. Most new middle-class residences are built over

and next to agricultural parcels that have left behind environmental artifacts (like

undeveloped hillsides and old growth oak trees) that epitomize a rural landscape for

many residents. In communities like Arroyo Grande and the surrounding Edna

Valley, much of Lhe remaining agriculture has been converted to vineyards and

wine tasting facilities - operations that enhance a quality of life orientation in at

least two ways. Wine tasting brings a cultured kind of tourist who often appreciates

the experience of 'getting away' to the country as much as sampling the premium

wines which the region produces. Similarly, wine making uses a highly educated

work force (at least at the management level) consisting of "farmers' who are more

likely than their counterparts in, say, lettuce to be urban in origin and to have the

sorts of lifestyle and travel habits associated with sophisticated city people.

The influx of middle-class families as well as retirees and tourists over the

last few decades has renewed the debate in San Luis Obispo County on growth and

the sustainabiity of the county's quality of life. Additionally, characteristics of many

middle-class migrants - namely, their high levels of education - have been found to

predict environmentalist attitudes in general (Dunlap 1975; Lauber 1978; Protash

and Baldassarre 1983) and opposition to offshore oil (among Californians) in

particular (Smith 1995: Fig. 5). Consequently, middle-class residents are-often

catalysts, and their communities often centers, for political attention and general

public sensitivity to local issues concerning growth, preservation of the natural and

rural environment, the county's "way of life," and offshore drilling.

San Luis Obispo

Finally, the city of San Luis Obispo displays a unique sodoeconomic status in

the county. The demographic influence of Cal Poly has already been noted; in 1990,

17,758 students enrolled for classes, constituting 42 percent of the citvs population

62
that year. SLO's large student population is also indicated by the proportion of

residents living in families, which by 1990 was 51 percent (the lowest figure in the

county). Cal Poly's demographic influence is also indicated by the proportion of the

labor force employed by education, in which SLO has always led the county (see

Table 19). With 1,812 employees, Cal Poly ranks as the largest employer in San Luis

Obispo County. SLO's concentration of Cal Poly faculty has diminished somewhat

as a number have relocated to nearby communities (especially Baywood-Los Osos

and Cayucos; see Chart 7); 1970 marked the greatest proportion of SLO's labor force

employed in education in the city's history. That this year roughly coincides with

the new progressive era in SLO's community politics gives some sense of the

demographic impact of the "Cal Poly factor."

Table 19: Educaon employment as percentage of labor force, 1970-1990

(San Luis Obispo shown in italics)

* Indicates data not available

03

1970 1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 11.6 7.6 7.6

Atascadero 7.7 8.6 9.0

Baywood-Los Osos 12.9 11.7 'U.'

Cambria 4.1 9.2

Cayucos * 14.9

Grover City 5.4 5.4 7.5

Morro Bay 7.1 7.1 7.3

Niporno 3.8 8.6 5.3

Oceano 5.3 3.4 4.5

Paso Robles 4.8 5.4 7.4

Pismo Beach 13.4 4.4 6.1

San Luis Obispo 20.2 17.4 74.1

Source: U.S. Census.
Chart 7: Cal Poly residential areas as percentage of employees

south county

13% other areas

6%

Source: Palyview (1994: 4)

Yet SLO also demonstrates that it is more than a "college town," with many

ast'ects of the retirement towns and middle-class suburbs, such as its high median

housing values. Furthermore, as the county's seat and largest dty, SLO remains the

primary focus of social, political and economic activity in San Luis Obispo County.

Consequently, it has the characteristics of a middle-class residential suburb, but with

the shortest commute times in the county (see Table 20).

Table 20: Median one-way commute times for workers (in minutes), 1970-1990

(San Luis Obispo shown in italics)

Source: U.S. Census.

* indicates data not available

To a significant extent, many people both live and work in the same

community; this enhances their awareness and investment in SLO and supports a

64

1980 1990

Arroyo Grande 19.8 19

Atascadero 18.7 18.8

Baywood-Los Osos 19.6 19.6

Cambria 18.2 18.4

Cayucos * 20.2

Grover City 19.1 18.5

Morro Bay 17.1 17.6

Nipomo 19.2 222

Oceano 23.2 20.5

Paso Robles 16.5 19.1

Pismo Beach 16.4 17.8

San Luis Obispo 12.2 13.2
local sentiment attested to by many informants. Residents (and visitors) have a

sense of SLO as a distinct place geographically (e.g. its physical containment by

surroundinghills), culturally (e.g. the historic concern for downtow city

architecture, arid careful growth), and soeidly (as a self-contained community set

apart from the rest of the county). These sentiments of place have resulted m a city

"character,' unique within the county, that can be discerned, for example, from the

downtown's coffeehouses, bookstores, and farmer's markets. It has become a fertile

ground for artists, environmentalists, intellectuals, students, New Age/self-help

practitioners, and other cosmopolitan groups. Such elements can be found

throughout the county, but their numbers reach a critical mass in SLO. Supportive

of liberal and environmental causes, they also reinforce or become part of the city s

perceived "quality of life," as other residents and visitors come to associate SLO (and

especially its downtown) with these social types. Quality of life concerns are shared

by local businesses; for example the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce (with a

relatively high membership of local businesses) is generally seen as more

"environmentalist," liberal, and anti-offshore drilling than most Chambers. This

distinct city character, then, is an important facet in the leading role that SLO has

taken in environmentalism (including several locally important, non-profit

environmentalist organizations), cultural organizations, and active opposition to

- -- C -. +1,. fr i 1'r econonuc anu LiLUULII41 1ULL L1LL a.L pC1LLVC.A L'.J LiLiL2L

extent, the rest of the county.

The Diablo Canyon controversy

SLO's strong opposition to offshore drilling cannot be fully understood

without reference to one of its watershed events: the social upheaval and mass

protest during the 12 year construction of Pacific Gas and Electric's (PGrF) Diablo

Canyon nuclear power plant. The impact of this event on SLO is comparable to that

of the Santa Barbara Channel oil spill on the city of Santa Barbara. Like the Santa

Barbara oil spill, the Diablo Canyon controversy began in 1969 (although it reached

its peak only after slowly simmering for much of the 1970s), polarized sentiments

among count residents, and brought forth a new generation of local activists and

government officials.

The controversy began when the Scenic Shoreline Preservation Conference, a

Santa Barbara County organization headed by Fred Eissler (a colleague of national

Sierra Club leader David Brower), petitioned the state's Public Utilities Commission

(PUC) to reconsider and deny approval PG&rF's approved Diablo Canyon nuclear

power plant. slated to be constructed out of sight in the coastal hills near Avila

Beach. The power plant had been relocated there as the result of an earlier decision

(negotiated in part by the Sierra Club) not to locate a plant on the Nipomo Dunes.

Eissler argued that there should be no nuclear power plant anywhere, and to that

end he petitioned the PUC for four years. Realizing that a local intervener would be

more effective throughout the process, he turned to Sierra Club stalwart Ian

65
McMillan of Shandon (who declined) and then two SLO women (one a Cal Poly

faculty spouse) to take over the struggle. They agreed and in 1973 gained legal

intervener status on behalf of themselves and the organization they belonged to,

Mothers For Peace (formerly Mothers Against the War).

Up to this point, the Diablo Canyon controversy was limited to these few

activists, whose arguments had been largely ignored or dismissed by county officials,

county newspapers, and most of the public. This period of general quiescence to the

construction of Diablo Canyon ended with the 1973 discovery of the Hosgri Fault, a

dormant seismic fauitline which lay underneath the nuclear power plant then

under construction (many activists maintained its knowledge was suppressed by

PG&E). Soon thereafter local concerns escalated tremendously. The faculty husband

of the Mother For Peace intervener circulated a letter opposing Diablo Canyon

among the physics and chemistry departments at Cal Poly; three-fourths of both

departments signed the letter.

During the next three yers, Mothers For Peace struggled unsuccessfully to halt

construction of Diablo. Their efforts coincided with growing national anti-nuclear

activism (particularly the Clamshell Alliance on the east coast), leading to an

'..J %.t.&Jfl4 LJS.J IL r,lt4r rtf

1. L Lfl tr')idi1r fi..' ...'_, rI-+ ii, fhø r'riir-r ii-no th 1t vrc nf th 17flc j,, '# J - - - - Anti-nuclear activists from within and especially outside the county formed the

Abalone Alliance in 1977 and held their first rally with 1,500 people in attendance in

August of that year (47 people, mostly local residents, were arrested for trespassing

onto the property). In August 1978, 5,000 demonstrators rallied again at Diablo

Canyon; 487 were arrested and given sentences of 15 days in jail and $300 fines. In

June 1979, 40,000 demonstrators convened at Camp San Luis for the largest antinuclear power rally ever held in the U.S., with Governor Jerry Brown speaking.

However, the growing local opposition to Diablo Canyon, increasing civil

disobedience, and the 1979 Three Mile Island example did little to slow down the

facility's imminent operation. Finally, in September 1981, the Atomic Energy

Commission licensed the facility for operation. Two days later, mass occupation of

the facility by demonstrators began; by the end of two weeks, more than 1,900 arrests

were made (Epstein 1991: 96-100).

The Diablo Canyon protests were ultimately unsuccessful in their objective,

yet their impact in the county remains profound, especially for the fate of offshore

oil development. The protests galvanized a new generation of environmentalists,

quality-of-life-oriented activists, and like-minded officials, who remain active in

SLO government and quite powerful in county politics as well. They gave lorl

residents, especially those closest to the facility (where local opposition was always

strongest), a confidence to critique and counter the "expert" pronouncements of

safety made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, local, state, or federal

66
governments, and special commission reports.32 Even the pro-Diablo Canyon

support that was expressed in the face of mass demonstrations had clear

implications for any potential offshore oil development Diablo Canyon supporters

regularly argued that PG&E generated immense county revenues - currently, onefourth of the county budget comes from PG&E taxes - as well as three to four percent

of jobs for the county's labor force (LosAngeles Times, January 3, 1994). By contrast, the

oil industry could never make such a "hard bargain," as many county residents

would argue during the federal OCS lease sales taking place simultaneously.

County newspapers in the environmental era

Media observers have long recognized that newspapers, more so than

television or radio stations, provide the medium that businesses, government, and

residents turn to for information and debate on local affairs, whether on the

environment or other public issues. Newspaper publishers and editors are typically

self-conscious of their central position in community affairs; moreover, like most

businesses and local governments, they share an interest in community growth and

economic expansion, which for newspapers translate into increased readership and

advertising revenue. Consequently, U.S. newspapers are characteristically probusiness, pro-industry, and pro-economic growth, even in "two paper towns" where

newspapers may make efforts to distinguish themselves editorially in other respects.

Furthermore, newspapers use their news-gathering and editorial powers, within

both the newspaper and the larger community, not only to support but (by virtue of

their monopoly on in-depth local news coverage) to shape the way most residents

understand these issues (Logan and Molotch 1987). While some newspapers are

known to advocate 'environmentalist' positions editorially, they rarely do so in

ways that oppose the growth interests of their business community.33

With this pro-business profile in mind, the contrast that the Sin Luis Cbispo

Telegram -Tribune presents becomes apparent. In interviews, informants on all sides

of the political, environmental, and business spectrums in San Uris Obispo County

have unanimously asserted that the Telegram-Tribune is an 'environmentalist"

paper, in the pro-environment, slow-growth editorial positions it advocates and in

the in-depth coverage it gives to issues of the natural environment, urban

32 Anti-expert sentiments grew, for example. after the Te1eam-Trthir supported the suspicions of the

Mothers For Peace that Diablo Canyon was unsafely constnacted. In 1981, the paper reported PG&Es

admission that parts of the facility was accidentally built in reverse, a rrurror image of the blueprints

3 An example of how newspapers can be both environmentalist and pro-growth can be found in the Suw

BztharaNews-Pie. This paper has advocated an anti-offshore drilling stance (widely shared among all

sectors of the county's South Coast) since before the l%9 Santa Barbara Channel oil spill, and yet it

typically splits from county environmentalists on issues that are perceived to threaten the interests of

the business community Such issues indude the importation of state water and the call for slackening

environmental regulations, both of which the newspaper and the city's growth machine support and

local enviroru'nentalists oppose.

b /
development, and the reliance of the local economy on tourism and fishing. Under

its 1963-83 editor, George Brand, the paper championed the Mission Plaza project,

the Lopez Wilderness area plan (in the Arroyo Grande Valley), the protection of La f..,.L_ __ £ .i L. WK-......... D.. D... ,..,4-...-. fT'- ,,- LUeLct L.41[yUIL ilULLL 1L1iLWc1y eApcuLtU1L, CXILU tate J.YIUIIU L)a)T L)LLU LLAILI -LAE

1990). Importantly, other media in the county have their agendas set by the Telegram -

Tribune; local TV news stations begin putting their local news coverage together by

looking at the Telegram -Tnu,une and follow up on the stories they see - a pattern that

generally corresponds to the way metha work (Gans 1980)

The papers contemporary environmentalist stance solidified with the Diablo

Canyon controversy and the 1973 di'covery of the underlying Hosgri Fault.

Previously, the sole position taken by the Telegram -Tribune concerning the nuclear

power plant was its support for the Sierra Club compromise to locate it out of the

Nipomo Dunes. A 1969 editorial stated:

There is little doubt that a referendum among the voters of San Luis Obispo

County would be overwhelmingly in favor of the Diablo Canyon plant, located

in a remote shoreline site that most people have never seen and to which they

have no access (Sm Luzs Cbispo Telegram -Tribune, February 18, 1969)

The 1973 Hosgri Fault discovery brought considerable national attention to Diablo

Canyon, most notably in a November 24, 1973 LosAngeles Times front-page story

proclaiming, 'Atomic plant built near quake fault (Dye 1973). Consequently, the

Telegram-Tribune's editorial position shifted as concerns about the nuclear plants

safety grew, and the newspaper took advantage of its proximity to the event to

assign reporters to investigate the details of the controversy. One reporter was sent

to Washington, D.C., specifically to follow congressional hearings on Diablo Canyon.

As the controversy progressed, the expertise which Telegram-Tribune reporters

accumulated on the facility's construction allowed the newspaper to become a

national "clearing house" of nuclear power information (as the then-acting editor

called it), a distinction of some importance during a decade of nationwide antinuclear protest. The Telerum -Tribune's investigative research and growing expertise

provided readers an explication of Diablo Canyon's technical aspects, the

construction and licensing process, and frequent advance notice of upcoming

procedural events of importance. Combined with its regular coverage of related

"satellite" stories, and periodical 'special issue" news magazines featuring articles

on several angles of one issue, the TeLegram-Tribune developed a pattern of "activist"

reporting during the Diablo Canyon era that was quite uncommon among U.S.

newspapers and that would characterize the Telegrrnn -Tribune's later coverage of oilrelated issues in the county.

While many in the county have sought to understand the Telegram-Tribune's

"environmentalism" as the consequences of its monopoly on daily newspapers or

As the sole daily newspaper serving the entire county, the Tel eSram-Tri bi has the rare distinction of

being "the only game in town,' and the sanctions that ideologically unsympathetic readers and

advertisers can make are limited. Businesses that withdraw their ads are left without newspaper

68
the influence of an authoritative editor - certainly its critics have charged as much -

its 1963-83 editor, George Brand, has argued that the paper's environmental

coverage has resulted from the widely-shared concern for the county's quality of life

that has attracted so many new residents (including most Telegium -Trthune reporters)

to the county in recent decades. Although he acknowledged his leadership role

during the 1970s, when he wrote strongly environmentalist editorials that

encouraged locals to fight environmental threats, Brand noted:

[We] were lucky in the reporters that we hired. They, for the most part, felt

the way I did. Of course I couldn't interview them at first and say "Do you

have a problem with this or that?" But they would come here because they

wanted to live here. And because they wanted to live here, they didn't want

to see the environment destroyed.

It was his understanding that the quality of life in San Luis Obispo makes up for the

relatively low wages paid by the Telegram-Tribune; therefore, reporters have an

interest in preserving what 'keeps' them at the newspaper. Furthermore, when the

Telegram -Tribune occasionally "misses" important environmental issues (e.g. its

initially scant coverage of the 1994 Unocal diluent leak at Guadalupe), its readers

have been likely to contact the newspaper and demand coverage of these issues. In

short, the Telegiwn -Trthune staff perceives its activist coverage to be motivated by

the actively concerned SLO community it serves and, to a large degree, identifies

with.

By contrast, a very different perception of community operates at the Fiue Cthes

Tim es-Press-Recorder, the family-managed tn-weekly newspaper serving Arroyo

Grande, Pismo Beach, Grover City, Shell Beach, and Oceano. With its small market

area and limited readership demographics (by 1994, 14,000 primarily middle-aged

and senior readers), the Tim es-Press-Recorder has sought to distinguish itself from the

Telegram -Tribune, its primary competitor. One aspect of this distinction fits the

personality of Tim es-Press-Recorder's management; the editor and co-publisher has

been described by one staff member as "very conservative" in comparison to the

larger SLO newspaper. Historically, the editor has used his editorial position to

articulate his conservative orientation, which he has perceived (and most

informants agree) to be reflective of the general social character of the Five Cities

(for example, consistently editorializing in favor of Diablo Canyon and further

promotion, and residents who cancel their subscriptions have little to turn to for local news. As a result,

many boycotting advertisers and readers eventually resume their business with the paper. In one

instance a group of local businessmen petitioned John P. Scripps (owner of the Te1erarn-Tiib and many

newspapers nationwide) to reprimand or fire the paper's editor; Scripps rebuffed them and reiterated

his support of the editor. 3 This editor recalled when he asked locals in an editorial to write a Paso Robles assemblyman if they

were interested in preserving a threatened Morro Bay eucalyptus grove. A few weeks later the

assemblyman called the Te1eni-Thbzv and pleaded with the editor to end the letter-writing

campaign. The editor said he would stop if the trees were protected, and the assemblyman eventually

secured funding to protect the grove as part of the state park system.

69
economic development in the Five Cities, even while these cities have been split on

such goals). Another aspect of the Tim e-Press-Recorder's distinction is the content of

its news coverage; unlike the Telegram -Trthune, the Five Cities newspaper is devoted

strictly to local coverage. In this regard, the editor has again consciously steered the

newspaper away from being stridently "issue-oriented" (a perceived characteristic of

the Telegram -Tribune) and more "people oriented" in its reporting of local news.

Yet while the Times-Press-Recorder's conservative editorial position might make

it a likely ally for the oil industry, the outcome has been more complicated. When

locRl issues become fraught with perceptions of threat and anxiety about

environmental risk (as they would with Diablo Canyon and later offshore oil

drilling), the newspaper has occasionally ended up as a vehicle for protest

dissemination, its conservative editorial position notwithstanding. This is

illustrated in the depth of its local coverage: the newspaper regularly covers weekly

city council and planning commission meetings of the Five Cities' three

incorporated cities (Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, Grover City), school board

meetings, the County Board of Supervisors hearings, and even the informal

gatherings of anti-offshore drilling coalifions. Its readers have come to expect such

coverage, a staff member insists: "when we miss meetings, or we don't cover

something that happened at that meeting, we get letters and phone calls." The

result is that the Tim es-Press-Reporter gives tremendous scrutiny (in sheer column.

inches as well as depth of coverage) to local government and local issues, in some

cases quantitatively greater than other newspapers in the tn-county area. Combined

with the Five Cities' small town atmosphere, where many people still know their

city council members by first name, the Times-Press-Recorder has helped sustain a

small town culture that is openly political and at times very contentious.

Finally, SLO's weekly "alternative" newspaper, the New Times, serves as a

printed forum for much of the county's environmentalist community. As with

many other alternative newspapers in the nation, the New Tim es typically reports

local news in a recognizably less "objective," more "concerned" perspective than

even the Telerwn -Tiune. Characteristically, the New Tim es demonstrates an acute

skepticism toward development, oil industrialization, and business. However,

there are other (and perhaps more important) ways besides news coverage that the

paper provides further support for the left-of-center discourse in SLO and elsewhere.

Particularly, news and editorials vie for space in the New Tim es (again, as with many

other alternative newspapers) with two other widely-read sections: an extensive

arts and events listing, and a community "bulletin board" section that publishes

classified ads, romantic personals, and announcements for a wide array of selfhelp/spiritual/health organizations and practitioners. These features not only

suggest the presence of demographic readership targeted by the New Times (and other

In an example of the paper's attention to anti-offshore drilling matters, in a 1994 top story the Thn!'sPss-Rewrder reported on the informal meeting "in a non-desaipt resburant" of opponents of Minerals

Management Services' 1997-2002 OCS leasing plan, weeks before the federal agency released its irutial

draft environmental impact report for the program (Fir-po 1994).

70
alternative papers) - namely, a liberal, environmentally conscious, and arts oriented

readership largely centered around SLO and Cal Poly -but celebrate and further

reinforce the concerns of the New Tim es' audience for the cultural amenities and

rather cosmopolitan way of life that characterize SLO. Political action on the

environment is presented as a cornerstone for protecting this SLO way of life.

Non-profits in the county

An important feature of a locality's "personality" is the types and density of

voluntary organizations it sustains (such as human service, culluiral/ recreational,

and health organizations, as well as a variety of organizations that serve special

interest groups such as women, immigrants, the elderly, and others). Such

organizations do more than contribute to their communities by providing services

and programs that local and county governments do not. They also establish

patterns of networking and cooperative behavior, disseminate information and

attitudes among their participants, and create capacities for carrying out citizens

preferences outside established institutions of government and business. To the

degree people are organized in these associations, they have mechanisms to respond

to changes affecting their communities, whether from acts of nature or from other

human beings. They have means to communicate with one another and take

action.

To examine how these dynamics have operated in San Luis Obispo County,

we look at the most recent data from San Luis Obispo County (as well as

comparative data from Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties) - as published in

county human resource directories, the Yearbook of California Charitable

Organizations, and supplemental sources37 - to measure the number, revenues, and

assets of non-profit and voluntary organizations active within the county and its

individual communities. Note that in all cases, we standardize our numbers to take

The directories used in this research are: in San Luis Obispo, the 1994-95 Human Services and

Support Groups Directory, published by Hotline; in Santa Barbara, The Comnuinzty Resources

Info-rrnation Services Directory for 1995, published by the Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara; and

in Ventura. Blue Book: The 1995 Directoru of Health and Human Services throughout Ventura County,

published by Helpline, a non-profit organization under the umbrella of Interface Children, Family

Services. The Yearbook of California Charitable Organizations is published by the National Center

for Charitable Statistics, 1989. The other sources used were the Chamber of Commerce listing of

nonprofit organizations in San Luis Obispo County and the Santa Barbara Area Foundations & Funding

Sources directory, published by Charitable Funding Services, 1992.

Revenues indude all public contributions, program service revenues (subscription fees, counseling fees,

etc.), and other revenue (interest, rents, gain or loss on sales, etc.) received by the organization. Assets

refer to the dollar value of an organizations assets including cash, accounts receivable, savings, loans

due, inventories, investments, land, buildings, and equipment. These two measures describe both the

amount of support and the net worth of the organizations, an important distinction because these are

very different sorts of moneys. While support is dearly critical to maintaining an organization1 its

assets are also critical for expanding an organization's functions.

71
into account the different size of population in the areas being compared; we are

using per capita measures of oiguztizthona1denszy to draw our conclusions. While

these data are contemporary, along with earlier accounts of organizations in the

county, they suggests how organizational activities have or have not historically

characterized life in the various communities and how, by extension1 these

communities might differ in the tone of their response (protest, support, apathy,

etc.) to offshore oil drilling.

First, a comparison with Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties qualifies our

observations about San Luis Obispo County's organizational activity. In the fricounty research area, San Luis Obispo County occupies a middle position; Santa

Barbara County has almost twice as many organizations per capita than San Luis

Obispo County, while Ventura County has approximately half. In terms of

organizational revenues and assets, San Luis Obispo County shares a common low

position with Ventura County; both have approximately one-fifth the revenues and

approximately one-tenth the assets that Santa Barbara County has (see Chart 7).

Both San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties are dwarfed by the non-prot resources

and activity in Santa Barbara County39

Chart 8: Organizational density of tn-counties

si ,cxj 0

$9W

'.-; $6c0

C4W

$3lXJ - 00

$i

$0

Source: Data gathered by the authors. See footnote 37

72

0 Total Revenue Total Assets e Number of Organizations

39 In fact. there are 128 different foundation aiid funding sources that Santa Barbara County non-profit

organizations can call upon to fund their projec-, which has led to the creation of a county directory of

these sources. San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties have no such directories, most likely because there

are not enough foundations t:o warrant the creation of a list; several informants in these two counties

have noted the lack of foundations as a major difference between their county and others.

Ventura Santa Barbara San Luis

Gkispo
Within San Luis Obispo County, organizational activity is concentrated in the

city of Sari Luis Obispo. Historical accounts reveal that organizations have "always

[been] a big factor in the life of San Luis Obispo" (McKeen 1988: 90), and our data

illustrate that SLO remains the most organized place in the county, even when

population level is taken into account. This is revealed by examining 1994-95 nonprofit organizations County-wide, they average -$150 per capita m organizational

revenues and assets, and -11 organizations per every 10,000 people. However, when

the geographical locations of these organizations are factored into this data, it

becomes evident that SLO has the bulk of non-profit organizations in the county.

SLO has 37 organizations for every 10,000 people, more than six times greater the

number of organizations in the north county (Paso Rabies and Atascadero).

Similarly, in SLO there is approximately $700 per capita in organization revenues

and assets, almost ten times the magnitude of revenues and assets in the north

county.

This regional imbalance in organizational density within San Luis Obispo

County is again demonstrated when specific kinds of non-profit organizations are

examined. Consider, for example, the county's arts and cultural organizations (see

Chart 8).

Chart 9: Arts and cultural organizations in Tn-county communities

$400.00

$350.00

$300.00. Cs } $250.00

C-)

$200.00

$150.00

C

$100.00

$50.00

$0.00 F

Source: Data gathered by the authors. See footnote 37

73

Revenues 0 Assets Organizaons

45

4

35

0

Cs '--.J C.)

2

15 .9

CsN

1

I- 050

Ventura Santa Santa San Paso

Barbara Maria Luis Ro bles

cbispo
San Luis Obispo County has 1.1 arts and cultural organizations for every 10,000

people, with an average of $4 per capita in revenues and $5 per capita in assets.

When geographical location is factored, SLO again exhibits the bulk of

organizalional density, with 37 organizations for every 10,000 people, $20 per capita

in revenues, and $25 per capita in assets. By contrast arts arid cultural organizations

in Paso Robles are almost neghgible 05 organizations for every 10,000 people and

almost $0 in revenues and assets. The same holds true for health and human

service organizations in the county, which average 2.5 organizations for every 10,000

people, $20 per capita in revenues, and $10 per capita in assets Factoring in

geographical location see Chart 9), SLO has 5 health and human services

organizations for every 10,000 people, $75 per capita in revenues, and $10 per capita

in assets. Paso Robles, by contrast. shows a paucity of such organizations: 2.5 health

and human services organizations for every 10,000 people and almost $0 in

revenues and assets.

Chart 10: Health and hnman services organizations in Tn-county communities

$1,400

$1,200

si,000

$800

$600

0

$400

$200 -'

T

Ventura

Rev-iues Assets Organizations

Source: Data gathered by the authors. See footnote 37

According to informants, San Luis Obispo County exhibits a "balanced

generosity" or a noticeable trade-off between resources in the different areas of the

non-profit sector (as first described by Wolpert 1988). This suggests that the caliber of

organization in San Luis Obispo County should not be overestimated - especially in

comparison with the city of Santa Barbara, where there is high funding across all

areas of organizational types. When compared to Paso Robles, Santa Maria, and

74

1

0

Santa Santa San Luis Paso

Barbara Maria Cbispo Robles
other tn-county cities, however, SLO is revealed to be a vital center for

organizational activity. This sheds light on the lead role within the county that the

city takes in matters that require an organized response, such as protesting offshore

oil development Through their organizing, SLO residents (and residents of other

communities who participate in SLO organizations) are likely to share information

and ideas and to establish patterns of networking and cooperative behavior -

important prerequisites to activism of any kind. Also, by promoting activities that

individuals, government, and businesses cannot do alone, SLO's organizations

provide an additional basis for the city's diverse or cosmopolitan "character." In

this sense, the high density of non-profit organizations joins the array of selfhelp/spiritual/health organizations and practitioners regularly listed in the city's

"alternative" newspaper (the New Thrzes) in furthering the unique sense of place that

SLO residents hold concerning their community.

Beyond the resources reflected by the organizations themselves is their effect

in combination and in interaction with one another and other institutions -

especially Cal Poly, in SLO's case. On the basis of our interviews, we believe that

organizations - even those active in different spheres - will interact in ways that

facilitate local response. Many people involved in "doing good" as a significant part

of their hves already know each other, have experience in mobilizing others, and

have the kind of minimal administrative skills and political knowledge through

which to be effective. When something occurs that disturbs the community, prior

contacts have been forged and there are existing networks through which news can

travel and action be taken.

B. The history of oil protest in San Luis Obispo County

The effect of the Santa Barbara oil spill

By most accounts, news of the 1969 Santa Barbara Channel oil spill greatly

alarmed citizens in Sari Luis Obispo County. Residents learned about the spill in

three ways: media accounts, direct experience, and government contacts. While the

media accounts and some residents' direct experience generated immediate

responses of shock and concern, local, county and other government officials were

presented a separate set of facts over a longer period of time on the spill's effects,

which provided "an education' and lay the basis for future governmental resistance

to offshore oil drilling. One important county activist/official served on the Tncounty Air Basin Coordinating Council, where he received data and was sensitized

to full force of the air-quality issues raised by OCS development. A pro-offshore

drilling county supervisor remembered having "the wind knocked out of" his and

others' advocacy; this subsequently "cooled" his stance after learning, "Hey,

something can happen. There is some danger to it.'

The Santa Barbara Channel oil spill dominated the daily newspaper's

headlines briefly (its coverage was culled from AP dispatches, not local reporters).
An initial Telegnim -Tribune editorial warned of offshore drilling encroaching from

the south1 and residents subsequently responded to the spill in letters to the editor

(some making the connection between the oil companies' reassurance to Santa

Barbarans and PG&E's reassurances to San Luis Obispo residents), but the spill by no

means dominated the editorial pages.

The most concrete result in San Luis Obispo County was the Board of

Supervisors' 3-2 vote in January 1970 (one year after the Santa Barbara oil spill) to

support a county ban of offshore drilling in state waters (i.e. up to 3 miles off the

coast) by including the county in the Monterey-Santa Cruz sanctuary (San Luis

Obispo County Library clipping file: "Petroleum in Submerged Lands") Such action

did not preclude the possibility of drilling in federal OCS waters off the county, and

the specter of such activity was raised in November 1974 when the U.S. Interior

Department proposed drilling along the entire California coast (in two separate

federal lease sales) and set the schedule for what would eventually take shape in the

1980s as Lease Sales 53 and 73. These sales would lease offshore oil tracts three miles

off the coast of San Lni Obispo County and other coastal counties in Northern

California.

A sense of public attitudes toward the coast in the aftermath of the Santa

Barbara Channel oil spill can be gleaned from votes on the 1972 California Coastal

Zone Conservation Act, a statewide initiative to establish the Coastal Commission

(and asked voters to recognize the coastal zone as a "delicately balanced ecosystem").

The act carried in the county, thanks to majorities in SLO and coastal communities.

Note, however, the strong negative vote (65%) in Paso Robles (see Table 21).

Table 21: 1972 Coastal Zone Conservation Act results

Source: San Luis Obispo County Elections Recorder

By no means, however, do these results imply a strong 'no-growth' or antibusiness orientation of local political leaders of the time. A member of the newly

formed state Coastal Commission recalled:

San Luis Obispo [County] in the early days of the Coastal Commission was prodevelopment, the cities were pro-development, the county was pro76

Yes No

Arroyo Grande 42.24% 57.76%

Grover City 41.77% 58.23%

Morro Bay 51.12% 48.88%

Paso Robles 34.62% 65.38%

Pismo Beach 54.69% 45.31%

San Luis Obispo 62.06% 37.94%

other 51.19% 48.81%

Total 53.12% 46.88%
development. They were trying to catch up with Santa Barbara. They were, you

know, they were looking for tourist dollars, and they were looking for motels

and development [and] money there for their base.

Meanwhile, as the tourism vision grew, Union Oil continued to phase out its

shipping operations through Port San Luis and to reduce its already small labor

force at its Avila operations and tank farm. Onshore oil production also began a

general decline in the county, starting around 1972 (see Chart 11: San Luis Obispo

County Onshore Oil Production, 1969-1992). New residents from outside the county

caused the proportion of county residents with personal memory or ties to the local

oil industry to decline. Many informants have attested to the widespread

opposition among new residents to industrialization from oil development and

other activities (e.g. "We moved up here to get away from that'); at a minimum, the

oil industry was an unfamiliar new neighbor, and its local reputation would be

based on its future behavior in the county, not its past.

Early anti-oil protest: The Central Coast supertanker port proposal

In the mid-1970s, against a backdrop of the global energy crisis, the OPEC

embargo, and local protests against Diablo Canyon, the federal government

announced plans to accelerate the development of 0(3 oil and gas resources. While

this era saw few concrete plans for large-scale oil projects in San Luis Obispo County

county officials and residents perceived that the county might be on the short end of

any negotiations with the oil industry, federal, and state governments. County

government made contacts, sought information, and issued reports concerning

potential projects in the county; residents formed citizens' groups, distributed

petitions, held public meetings, wrote letters to their newspapers, and rallied city

councils to present a united front in defense of what was perceived as the county's

welfare. What in many cases may have seemed to the industry as "minor blips" in

the effort to accelerate oil and gas development, became major events in San Luis

Obispo County, which crystalli7ed into the beginning of an organized anti-oil

movement.

County residents were concerned not only with local OCS development but

with a potential county role in processing oil produced elsewhere, including Adaska.

Proposals from oil companies or government agencies for coastal projects typically

resulted in protest; county leaders opposed a 1975 Standard Oil of California

proposal for a $100 million supertanker port in Estero Bay (between Morro Bay and

Cavucos). Following the release of the environmental impact report, county

officials and environmentalists successfully campaigned to persuade Standard Oil to

shelve its proposal (Roberts 1977).

77
1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 500,000 Onshore O1 Production, 1969-1992 Chart 11: San Luis Obispo County iJ. I I I- I I I I I I I I --I------ I 0 t 't V '.0 t-. O G'. Q DO lx'. DO DO 00 0) a'. a'. a'. a'. a'. a'. a'. a'. a'. Annual Reports of Oil and Gas Supervisor Source California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil and Gas.
A subsequent campaign beginning in 1976 to defeat another supertanker port

proposal for an undetermined site along the county's coast illustrates how anti-oil

protest resulted from frequently ambiguous information. By September of that year,

the Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) had been in negotiations for more than a year with

the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) and the California Air Resources Board

(CARB) concerning the company's application to build a supertanker port in Long

Beach (to transport oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline). State officials questioned

whether the proposed Long Beach port might force the Los Angeles basin out of

compliance with air quality standards, and federal negotiators began approaching

other state officials regarding alternative sites for the port Events in San Luis

Obispo County began rolling when a LasAngeles Times article (which few in the

county had read) quoted Sohio representatives, state officials, and a state Sierra Club

spokesman discussing Avila Beach as an alternative site for the supertanker port;

the San Luis CVi.spo Telegram -Tribune, in turn, asked county supervisors, a California

Coastal Commissioner, and local environmentalists, for their response (Harris

1976a). The alternative port proposal circulated at the level of speculation for over

two weeks, after which the CARB recommended Avila Beach as a site worth

considering due to its lack of air quality problems. By January of that year, the FEA,

still coordinating details for the entire delivery system for the Alaskan crude,

refused to commit to any supertanker port site for transporting the Alaskan crude

(Harris 1977).

While deliberations and investigations continued outside San Luis Obispo

County, county officials, environmentalists, and residents expressed widespread

concern and anxiously sought any news they could find to provide more

information about the possibility of a Central Coast supertanker port. The

contradictory signals they received from outside the county furthered their

confusion, fears, and anger. While Sohio insisted it was still seeking approval for its

original Long Beach proposal, a Bureau of Land Management official questioned

CARBs claim that the Long Beach facility would not add significant pollution to the

Los Angeles basin; however, he also confirmed that the agency's environmental

impact statement for the port proposal was considering other county sites (Oso Flaco

Lake in the San Luis Bay and Estero Bay) as alternatives (Harris 1976b). A Western

Oil and Gas Association spokesperson asserted that CARB was nominating Avila

Beach as the best air quality site for the port (Harris 1976c).

As oil industry, federal, and state officials concerned themselves with the

Trans-Alaskan pipeline's larger transport infrastructure issue, the Central Coast port

controversy set in motion political and community actions that would increasingly

characterize anti-oil sentiment in the county. Immediately after news of the Avila

Beach proposal was received in the county, local environmentalists and officials

expressed residents opposition and promised to 'watchdog' the proposal (Harris

1976a). Revealingly, while candidates for county supervisor sought to distinguish

themselves from their rivals as November elections approached, all candidates in

the affected coastal districts were unanimously opposed to the proposal (Harris

1976d). Citizens groups like the Save Our Coast Committee, the Nipomo-Arroyo

79
Grande Council of Concerned Citizens, and the People's Wedge emerged to hold

public forums and press conferences, raise money, and circulate petitions protesting

Central Coast port Sites; Even a majority of directors at the Port San

LLLI2, t1tLUU[ L1LU1LL 1ULtLU UL i-VUi, wiiere ute SUpeELd1LLe1 tJLL wouiu ue

expressed opposition to the port proposal. By January 1977, the city councils of SLO,

Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande passed anti-port resolutions (San Luis

Cbispo TeLegrwn -Tribune, January 26, 1977).

Additionally, the county's major daily newspaper, the San Luis Cbispo Telegram -

Tribune, relayed all new information on the port controversy, typir1ly brandishing it

on the front page.4° Frequently the newspaper served as the investigative arm for

the county, contacting various Sohio, federal, and state officials for any further

developments. Also, in a style characteristic of its coverage of Diablo Canyon and

future oil controversies, the Telegram -Tribune gave prominent coverage to news of

local citizens' groups organizing against the Central Coast port proposals and gave

prominent advance notice to its readers of upcoming meetings and visits by

relevant government officials and agencies. The paper aired the various concerns

and grievances of county and local officials, environmental groups, and residents:

the CARBs failure to consider the county's regular thermal inversions (making

potential impacts on the county's air quality more severe than an inventory of local

pollution sources would suggest); the potential for oil spills and the safety of the

proposed tanker fleet; possible obstruction to the local fishing industry; and threats

that coastal industrialization and tanker traffic would pose to endangered sea otters

and other local species. The newspaper also reported and commented editorially on

the legitimacy of Sohio, federal, and state officials' Central Coast port proposal,

officials' desire for "political' expediency, 41 and the idea that San Luis Obispo

County could unwillingly be involved in an air pollution "trade-off" with Long

Beach!

These local phenomena attest to an important development in San Luis

Obispo County's attitudes toward the oil industry. The depth of county and local

government concern, newspaper attention, and citizen mobili7ation that emerged

4° In the first month of the port controversy, the Telegnzm-Tribiur printed 9 news articles and 1 editorial on

the port controversy, giving the issue front-page coverage 8 times. The first 5 articles were published

before the count received confirmation (from the CARB) that Avila Beach was in fact officially being

considered as an alternative site; headlines of these early artides brought attention to the ambiguous

nature of events with terms like "proposes, "awaits federal rating," and "under debate'. The first

month's in-depth coverage was not atypical; in the fifth month, and with few new developments to

report, the Telerum-Tiibir ran 7 news artides on the port controversy.

41 Sohio estimated a Central Coast port could be built 14 months quicker than a Long Beach port.

Additionally, county officials were reported to be suspicious that an Oso Flaco port was being

considered due to its proximity to the U.S. Navy's oil reserve at Elk Hills (Harris 1977).

42 As the Telem-Tribwv stated in its first editorial on the port controversy, This sounds like a view

along the lines of: Why make air pollution worse in Long Beach when we can take a clean area like

Avila and let the noxious emissions crud it up a little?" (SanLthsCispoTe1egjm-Trth'r, September 10,

1976: AS)

so
in response to the Central Coast supertanker proposal of the xnid-1970s created a

model for future local organizing toward oil-related proposals. Although the

supertanker port issue eventually turned out to be a "false alarm,' the perception of

threat resulted in a very real response by environmentalists, local officials, arid

other county residents.43 By the time Sohio abandoned its Long Beach port

application in 1979, an infrastructure of oil protest in the county was becoming

well established. Anti-oil activists had begun identifying the issues of concern,

compiling mailing lists, and sharing their contacts in government45 and

environmentalist organizations outside the county. Such organization lay the basis

for future protest m oil-related issues

Staying ahead of the issues: The Rattlesnake Canyon LNG terminal proposal

Another "false alarm' project again shows how the county operated to

anticipate energy projects it feared. In 1978, a consortium of gas companies was

looking for a west coast site to process liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from

Alaska and Indonesia. After a San Luis Obispo County site at Rattlesnake Canyon (a

coastal terrace situated between Avila Beach and the Diablo Canyon nuclear power

plant) was listed among three alternatives to its preferred Santa Barbara County site,

San Luis Obispo County's planning department released its own report listing

county-imposed conditions needed to mitigate the socioeconomic and

infrastructural impacts of building the LNG terminal at Rattlesnake Canyon (San Lu/s

Cbispo Telegram -Tribune, May 5, 1978). At Board of Supervisors hearings, planners also

spelled out the potential environmental impacts of the LNC terminal: the

explosion of 1.6 million cubic yards of reef for the construction of a required

breakwater, with subsequent loss of marine species; harm to four nearby Indian sites

otherwise requiring a $5 million, two-year archaeological study; and the potential

for poisonous gas leaks. County planners recommended that the state Coastal

Commission rank Rattlesnake Canyon the least desirable alternative for the LNG

terminal (Swensen 1978a). The Coastal Commission ranked the site second among

viable terminal locations, but the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously

to oppose Rattlesnake Canyon as the location (Swensen 1978b).

The Telegram -Tribune again gave characteristically in-depth coverage to this

event. In the last week of the Rattlesnake Canyon proposal's news life (concluding

Freudenburg arid Gramling (1994) similarly observed how the potential for oil generated real social

mobilization in northern California's offshore oil drilling controversy.

Legal obstacles placed before approval of the various facilities for Sohios Trans-Alaskan pipeline

coincided with a drop in oil demand, leading Sohio to cancel the entire project (Plotkin 1987: 205').

' Leon Panetta, then San Luis Obispo County's Democratic tJ.S. Representative, became one of San Luis

Obispo County's (and much of northern California's) staunchest allies in federal government by

opposing oil-related proposals that were perceived to threaten the ocean-dependent businesses and

industries.

81
with the supervisors' vote of opposition), the newspaper gave the story consistent

front-page coverage. Again characteristic of its supportive attention to local

activism, the newspaper published afront-page story over its masthead describing a

£U.Q..L ' Ut LULaI 1L UI. flLLLCt 1LUWfl y

local activists; the story's headline, "LNG apathy puzzles PUC member," could

ostensibly be seen as provocative or even rallying during this period of Diablo

Canyon protest (Marrs 1978: Al). The combination of a sympathetic newspaper and

mobilized activists served to keep residents informed of potential oil and gas

projects well before the reality such projects became arunment

One consequence of this pattern of advance notice and debate was that it

emboldened a policy to "cut off' unwanted oil and gas development before it

happened. Such was the strategy two weeks. after the county's statement of

opposition to the Rattlesnake Canyon terminal site, when the Board of Supervisors

unanimously recommended to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that 30

miles of OCS oil and gas tracts included in Lease Sale 53 be excluded from leasing.

Largely symbolic, this action by the county sought to extend their long-time

opposition to offshore drilling in state waters to the federal OCS tracts (San Luris Chispo

Telegram -Tribune, May 24, 1978). A similar strategy would be successfully pursued

years later (in 1986) when county residents acquired referendum power to essentially

'cut off" approval of onshore oil and gas facilities.

Federal OCS Lease Sale 53

Federal plans for expanded offshore development accelerated in the late

1970s, when the U.S. Interior Department announced its plans for Lease Sale 53,

which would open 111 OCS tracts off the central and northern coast of California,

from San Luis Obispo County north to Humboldt County. The announcement of

this "area-wide leasing' galvanized concern and opposition along the California

coast. By the spring of 1980, the Interior Department's plans became concrete with

the release of the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Lease Sale 53.

Opponents of offshore oil drilling in affected coastal counties began to convey their

criticisms of the draft EIS, a document that many felt demonstrated a foregone

conclusion that OCS oil drilling would be approved.

In San Luis Obispo County, many communities expressed concern and

opposition toward the lease sale more fervently than toward the prior supertanker

port and LNG terminal proposals. Opponents circulated petitions to express their

opposition to the lease sale and prepared to confront the BLM at the upcoming draft

EIS hearings. The Pismo Beach city council made its disapproval official in a letter

Eventually the Rattlesnake Canyon site was rejected in favor of Point Conception in Santa Barbara

County, where the L.NG terminal project was ultimately abandoned in the early 1980s. See our Santa

Barbara County report for further details.

82
to the federal agency. San Luis Obispo County also officially opposed the sale and

recommended the tracts be placed in a petroleum reserve instead. On June 27, 1980,

the BLM held the San Luis Obispo County hearing on the Lease Sale 53 draft EIS at

SLO's Cuesta College auditorium; this venue was chosen after it became apparent

that the first choice of venues would be too small to seat all the citizens who wanted

to attend.

At the heanngs, county residents expressed a remarkably unanimous

opposition to the BLM's plans. Here we are able to provide a "snapshot" of the

mobilization and concerns of San Luis Obispo County's offshore drilling opposition

from our in-depth study of this hearing, conducted as part of a comparative case

study with Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties (for further discussion, see

Appendix B). The SLO hearing was marked by the greatest public response in the

fri-counties (when compared to the roughly coincident Lease Sale 68 hearings in the

other counties). There were 101 "public" commentors (that is, citizens not

representing any organization but speaking on their own behalf) from the 128

responses from within the county. Of these public commeritors, 20 were Cal Poly

faculty or students, most with natural science backgrounds. A relatively low

proportion of organizational representatives (nine percent of San Luis Obispo

County comn-ientors) contrasts with Santa Barbara County, where 41 percent of

commentors were organizationally affiliated. Of the 128 commentors, 92 percent

e'cpressed opposition to the lease sale and/or criticisms of the draft EIS; six percent

expressed support; and only one was neutral. This was by far the most unanimous

opposition toward leasing among equivalent lease sale hearings in the tri-counties;

by confrast, 51 percent of Santa Barbara County commentors were critical, while only

13 percent of Ventura County commentors expressed opposition or criticism at their

equivalent lease sale hearings.

We examined the content of responses at the hearings - the types of

substantive issues that were raised. One-third of all comments (i.e. oral testimonies

and letters) from government units, environmentalist organizations, and the public

concerned the lease sale's potential impacts to the environment as estimated (or

underestimated, as many opponents charged) by the lease sales draft EIS. (For

environmentalist organizations, the environment was predictably the most

dominant theme.) Given the large body of text in the draft EIS on those issues (see

Appendix B), the prominence of this theme may not be surprising. More notable

was the public's second most prominent theme, a criticism of the legitimacy of the

leasing and of the hearing itself. In an important indication of opposition to the

lease sale, 23 percent of public sentiments addressed what cornmentors perceived as

the inadequacy and undemocratic nature of the environmental impact analysis

process, as well as the larger intentions of the BLM, the oil industry, the Interior

Department, and even the U.S. government as a whole.

Concern for the countvs economic base, especially tourism and fishing, was the

next most voiced issue (14 percent of public comments). Commentors emphasized

their reliance on a pristine coast for economic survival. Relatedly, the San Luis

83
Obispo County fishermen who commented on Lease Sale 53 were unanimously

opposed to offshore oil drilling (this contrasts with the largely supportive comments

made by fishermen in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties).

A final significant set of issues (in 12 percent of public comments) expressed

concerns for the county's way of lzfe, or the social and sentimental facets of the

"quality of life" in the affected communities (the "character" of a community,

aesthetics, recreational uses of the coast and residents' general well-being, etc.). This

was also part of many statements invoking the physical environment or the

economy: "I moved here to breathe clean air..." or, "the beauty of this region is

appreciated by both tourists and local residents...". The way of life theme received

more prominence in public comments than the quantitative measurement of

statements (such as conducted in this research; see Appendix B) might suggest. As

the hearing wound toward its end, many of the opposed! critical speakers

increasingly sounded the way of life theme, albeit in briefer form than most earlier

speakers. In a characteristic example, a speaker might begin by stating, "Well,

throughout this hearing you gentlemen have heard most of the scientific and

economic reasons why we're opposed to offshore drilling, so I thought I'd tell you

something different why I'm opposed to drilling off our coast..." and then give his

or her own version of the way of life theme, with the apparent intent of capturing

the attention ot the presldmg BLM othcials Public speakers may have gis en uus

kind of "quickie" statement, we speculate, out of their own fatigue or a desire to not

be repetitive; however, it is likely that some of these final public speakers lo came

to the hearing unprepared to speak but changed their minds as the hearing

proceeded, a manifestation of the intensity of feelings the hearing raised among the

public.

Among the lease sale supporters, national energjneeds were most prominently

invoked. Many of these speakers came from outside the county (e.g. oil industry

spokespersons, pro-economic development associations from Santa Barbara

County). However, public commentors from San Luis Obispo County used the

same concern (nine percent of public comments) to bolster their case against leasing,

for example, criticizing the federal government's haste to exploit non-renewable

energy resources and neglect of renewable resources. Several public opponents also

said San Luis Obispo County "did its share" for national energy needs with Diablo

Canyon's nuclear power plant.

Finally, and consistent with the pattern observed in this report, the Lease Sale

53 hearing was characteristically framed by advance notices, in-depth reporting,

public letters and editorial comments from the zn Luis bispo Telerum -TninL ne and

the Five CiLies Tim es-Press-Rewrder; their coverage was quantitatively greater than

coverage from Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Santa Maria newspapers for equivalent

hearings. Through the filter of local newspapers, the legitimacy/procedure theme

continued to loom large in representations of the county's attitudes toward offshore

oil drilling (a process that social scientists sometimes call issueainplifiaztioiz).

84
As this snapshot of SLO's hearing suggests, the social process surrounding the

event - from prior mobilization, to public response, to media coverage - reveals the

, i-.; 1i-. iJ1LL J.L %.WL 1WtL5 UypU.LL1U1L. reLile I ILIflLIL I .1. uiy IQ..L1ILf

and students, environmental organizations, business groups, local newspapers and

city councils were among the actors who voiced their disapproval not so much in

'parts per billion" or other scientific jargon (especially when compared to Santa

Barbara County oil opponents) than by invoking their way of life, a shared belief in

the mtegnty of San Luis Obispo County as a place, and the mcompatibthty of

offshore drilling within this place.

San Luis Obispo County's anti-oil movement gathers strength

Following the Lease Sale 53 hearings, anti-offshore oil opponents continued

mobilizing to prepare for the next stages of federal plans to lease OCS oil tracts.

With representatives from the seven other Northern California counties that

would be affected by the lease sale, San Luis Obispo County representatives attended

a February 1981 California Coastal Commission meeting to appeal the Interior

Department's plans for Lease Sale 53 and other OCS lease sales planned under

Interior Department's area-wide leasing program. During this period the Telegrwn - Tribune published "Oil on the Horizon," a special pull-out section of the newspaper

featuring several stories about Secretary of Interior James Watts' plans for lease

sales, as well as their potential negative impacts on air quality, tourism, and fishing

(Sin Luis Cbispo Telegnzm -TrIbune, July 21, 1981).

Eventually, the state Coastal Commission and national environmentalist

groups sued the federal government to stop the further realization of Lease Sale 53.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court derailed their lawsuit in December of 1983, the

obstacles they placed in the oil industry's path did effectively stall OCS drilling. In

San Luis Obispo County, the Atlantic Richfield Company, Amoco Production

Company, and three other oil companies gave up their claims to OCS tracts off the

county's coast only three days after the Interior Depai intent accepted their bids.

Local environmentalist groups expressed satisfaction with the oil companies

decision, since oil development in those tracts, they argued, would threaten the

native sea otter population (Townes 1984). Other oil companies (e.g. Cities Services)

retained tracts off the county's coast leased in Lease Sale 53 tracts, although

ultimately none would be developed.

County anti-oil opponents maintained the tenor of opposition to offshore

drilling they displayed during Lease Sale 53 for the next federal OCS lease sale, 1983's

Lease Sale 73. The second lease sale proposed under Interior Departments areawide leasing program to affect San Luis Obispo County, Lease Sale 73 offered 173

OCS tracts (each three miles square) between Morro Bay and Point Conception (in

85
Santa Barbara County).47 Before and during the April 13 draft EIS hearing in Santa

Maria, opponents criticized not only the lease sale but the short notice with which

the US. Minerals Management Service (MMS), now the lead agency directing

federal OCS development, scheduled the hearing; notably, public commentors were

given only one week to register to testify at the event (see Project Coastwatch 1983:

2). While none of the 43,801 acres leased through Lease Sale 73 was ultimately

located off San Luis Obispo County, the lease sale put county residents on increasing

notice that their shores were a potential target for offshore development. As it

covered the coasts of only two Central Coast counties, the lease sale also promoted

cooperation and reinforced a sense of camaraderie with government planners and

activists in Santa Barbara County (evidenced, for example, in the bi-county focus of

Project Coastwatch, an anti-offshore drilling organization).

Offshore drilling became an increasingly salient threat for San Luis Obispo

County residents, especially in the coastal towns of the southern county, where

onshore drilling was a persistent nuisance for many. For at least five years, "sour"

heavy crude oil development (the easily extracted light oil had long since been

depleted) had been a source of steady but limited controversy for some Pismo Beach

and Arroyo Grande residents living near the Price Canyon oil field (Sm Luis Cbispo

Telegram -TrIbune, August 31, 1979). In November of 1984, after the county planning

commission approved exploratory drilling on the coastal side of the Pismo hills

(what Pismo officials and county planners call the 'scenic corridor"), the city of

Pismo Beach requested a county ban on production wells along the coastal hills

facing the ocean. The planning commission compromised on Pismo Beach's

request; after concluding that even hidden wells would alter the hills scenic beauty,

the commission approved hidden production wells on a case-by-case basis (Stephens

1984a, 1984b, 1984c).48

In these and other minor oil events (such as the BLM's 1984 approval of

onshore leases in the Los Padres National Forest), oil and gas proposals in the

county elicited a (by now) familiar pattern of responses. Residents raised concerns

The Enterior Department originally intended ES 73 to lease approximately nine million acres of OCS

tracts from Point Conception to the Oregon border before the U.S. Congress slashed Interior Department

funding in 1982 and reduced the lease sale area to OCS tracts off the coast of San Luis Obispo and

northern Santa Barbara Counties (Project Coastwatch 1983: 2).

4' An important dissenter in the planning commissions case-by-case approval of hidden wells along the

Pismo hills was Evelyn Delaney, county supervisor-elect from Avila (and Cal Poiv faculty spouse).

During the commissions deliberations, the Te1em-Tribiur regularly reported on her antagonism towards

representatives of the oil company (Nahama and Weagant). At one point, she criticized the company

for flying an American flag atop their hillside exploratory well: "1 don't know why they have to fly

it. It's like twisting the knife in our backs" (SanLzisCbi9oTe1egram-T!ibzr, November30, 1984: Al). In

regards to company representatives' suggestion that Pismo Beach residents were 'overreacting to

aesthetics," Delaney was quoted, "You [oil industry} people bring all this on yourselves." Suggesting

they drive to Price Canyon to see the extent of oil development there, she added 'Make sure you keep

your windows down too so you can smell it" (Stephens 1984b: Al). At the County Board of Supervisors,

Delaney was reelected for 10 years, during which she advocated a firm anti-oil stance.

86
for protecting tourism, the natural environment, and the local way of life; county

and local government investigated and, if possible, intervened in far off oil-related

decision-making; vigilant environmentalist groups and other activists moved to

head off oil-related impacts to the natural environment and local animal species;

and the Sin Luis aispo Telegmm -Tribune and most other newspapers in the county

consistently covered oil matters near and far. By the mid-1980s, this pattern of

responses rarely abated, as residents perceived a constant pressure "from outside" to

step up the pace of offshore drilling and coastal mdustrialization

Measure A: Anti-offshore oil sentiment reaches its pinnacle

In the rnid-1980s, anti-oil activists increasingly turned their strategy toward

using local land-use powers as the lever over industry and federal government

actions. If they could not directly control the leasing of federal oil tracts offshore,

they could try to restrict the approval of o it shore oil facilities needed to treat that oil

by requiring voter approval instead of the usual county certification. To this end,

environmentalists (coordinated by "Save Our Shores," a statewide organization)

drafted local and county initiatives across the state which, if approved by voters,

would require oil companies to go through these more difficult procedures for

approval of their onshore treatment facilities (Levy 1986)

In San Luis Obispo County, the need to exert local control over the pace of

offshore drilling becameurgent as Cities Services, the managing partner for a

consortium of offshore oil operations, moved through the permitting process for an

Santa Maria Basin OCS tract acquired in Lease Sale 53. After the Coastal

Commission denied Cities Services' 40,000 barrels-per-day Platform Julius proposal

(needed for drilling its OCS tract), the company appealed the decision and mounted

a local lobbying effort to win over the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.

The result was that the company "really got people pissed off," recalled an MMS

official from that era:

[Cities Services] came in to San Luis and started throwing their weight around,

thinking they were in - I don't know where they thought they were. Some place

where somebody likes the oil companies.... They just assumed that everything

was going to be all right, and that they were going to come through. And they

had meetings and big dinners to which they invited the city fathers and the

Board of Supervisors and completely ignored the environmental people you

know, all the man on the street type thing.

As a result of Cities Services' lobbying, San Luis Obispo County offshore drilling

opponents grew fearful that the County Board of Supervisors might eventually

approve the land use modifications needed for Platform Julius' onshore oil

processing facilities. With the Coastal Commission appeal still pending, county

opponents recognized the desirability of giving voters the final say over onshore

industrialization. Led by a Cal Poly staff member on the SLO city council, local oil

87
opponents drafted 'Measure A," which would give residents referendum power

over onshore oil industrialization.

The first in a slate of California coastal oil initiatives went before Santa

Barbara County voters in 1985, where considerable oil industry campaigning and

historic pro-oil sentiment in several communities managed its defeat by a narrow

margin (see our Santa Barbara County report). Undaunted by this first defeat, in

1986 offshore drilling opponents succeeded in placing similar oil referendums on

ballots in 12 local jurisdictions (6 counties and 6 cities).49 The oil industry mounted

counter-campaigns against all these initiatives, but for several companies the stakes

were highest in San Luis Obispo County, where Cities Services had proposed an

onshore treatment facility in unincorporated Nipomo and awaited county approval.

Voters in the city of SLO passed their own initiative by 78 percent in the first round

of elections in June of 1986, but the potential for approving the Nipomo facility still

remained. As a result, the oil industry and its opponents prepared for a showdown

over the November 1986 county initiative known as Measure A (by this time Shell

Oil had replaced Cities Services role as sponsor of the project). The oil industry

outspent Measure A supporters by a ratio of 10 to 1.50

On election day, offshore oil opponents approved the referendum with 53

percent of the vote (&m BatharNews-Press, June 9, 1991). In all the other localities

across the state with comparable initiatives, and where the oil industry ran a much

weaker effort, the margins of victory were greater, from 22 percent in San Mateo

County to 44 percent in the city of San Diego (Save Our Shores mimeograph).

Voters from SLO and coastal communities (Mono Bay, Baywood-Los Osos, Cambria,

Cayucos, and Pismo Beach) overwhelmingly supported the measure; Grover City

voters split evenly on the issue, while those from inland middle-class suburbs

(Arroyo Grande, Atascadero) and working-class towns (Paso Robles, Nipomo,

Oceano) generally rejected the referendum (see Table 22). In a separate ballot, Mono

Bay voters passed their own municipal anti-oil measure with 70 percent of the vote

(Save Our Shores numeograph)

49These included six counties (Monterey, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and

Sonoma) and six cities (Oceanside, Morro Bay, Monterey, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, and San

Francisco).

Some anti-oil activists recalled that, before the election, a few oil industry supporters representing

tl-ien-iselves as the Democratic Central Committee' called restered Democrats and asked them to

vote for Rep. Leon Panetta (the county's anti-offshore drilling Congressman) but against Measure A.

Eventually this group unknowingly tried the "push poU" on the real chair of the Democratic Central

Committee, who exposed the election fraud plot by amving at their phone bank location with a news

team.

88
Table 22 Measure A (1986) election results

Source: San Luis Obispo County Elections Recorder

By 1990, 27 California coastal jurisdictions had passed initiatives of some sort

restricting onshore oil industrialization. The effectiveness of these ordinances

induced the Western Oil and Gas Association to sue 13 governments in 1987

(including San Luis Obispo County and the cities of SLO and Mono Bay), claiming

their ordinances violated federal supremacy by making the will of the Interior

Department impossible to carry out. The industry organization also charged that the

ordinances would "create a wall from the Mexican border to the Oregon state line

blocking development of oil in the outer continental shelf" (LDsAngelesTiznes, April

26, 1988: A3). A U.S. district judge later dismissed the oil industry's case in April

1988.

Platform Julius revisited

The first test of San Luis Obispo County's referendum power came with

Shell's proposed Platform Julius. In January 1987, the state Coastal Commission

overturned the regional Coastal Commission and approved Julius's construction

(San Luis Obispo County Library clipping file: "Petroleum in Submerged Lands").

Shell overcame a second hurdle after San Luis Obispo County's Board of

Supervisors approved three zoning variances (one for Shell's trea[inent plant on

the Nipomo Mesa, the second for the Celeron company's pump station and

pipeline, and the third for lot line adjustments to make the first two plans possible)

to support Julius offshore. Following the Supervisors' approval, the three plans

89

%yes %no

Arroyo Grande 46.8% 53.2%

Atascadero 49.1% 50.9%

Baywood-Los Osos 62.2% 37.8%

Cambria 56.3% 43.7%

Cayucos 57.0% 43.0%

Grover City 50.0% 50.0%

Mono Bay 65.4% 34.6%

Nipomo 47.8% 52.2%

Oceano 48.2% 51.8%

Paso Robles 42.0% 58.0%

Pismo Beach 53.1% 46.9%

San Luis Obispo 58.8% 41.2%

other 46.8% 53.2%

total 52.9% 47.1%
were forwarded for county voterst final decision, scheduled to be decided in three

measures on a June 7, 1988 referendum (&zzth Barbara News-Press, June 9, 1988).

i,ri..:i t.i' +k c VYILLLC j1LCiL S LiAtFQiL vi atu.ii LLL' j.t.ii.w- 'it LLL- quality protections, offshore oil opponents argued (in a letter signed by several

current and former government officials from various communities in the county)

that air quality controls were compromised and insufficient, and that the

Supervisors' approval of Shell's less stringent plan was the result of hasty,

eleventh-hour negotiations. They also pointed to the new Chevron treatment

facility at Gaviota in. neighboring Santa Barbara County; despite Chevron's

assurances that the plant would be visually insignificant, its extreme visibility from

Highway 101 fueled arguments in San Luis Obispo County that the oil industry

could not be trusted. These and other arguments allowed the county's offshore oil

opponents - then at the height of their influence, as many informants concurred in

retrospect - to defeat the three measures by a margin of almost 10 percent. SLO and

the county's seaside communities (Morro Bay, Baywood-Los Osos, Cambria,

Cayucos, and Pismo Beach) rejected Shell's proposal by the widest margin. Other

middle-class suburbs and working-class towrs split on the issue; Grover Beach and

Atascadero narrowly rejected Platform Julius, while Oceano and Nipomo approved

it by a slight margin. Only Paso Robles, true to form, backed the oil project with a

stronger margin (see Table 23).

90
Table 23: Platform Julius referenda results51

Source: San Luis Obispo County Elections Recorder

After the defeat, Shell Oil resumed its search for a treatment facility, giving

serious consideration to northern Santa Barbara County; it also threatened San Luis

Obispo County with a lawsuit were its Platform Julius project ultimately curtailed by

the county's decision (Swii Baranz News-Press, June 9, 1988). Shell's onshore

processing facility for the proposed Platform Julius project was the first and last

project to be decided by county voters after 1986's Measure A.

The county's dealings in offshore oil matters during this period were not

limited to the Platform Julius project. Since at least the 1980 Lease Sale 53 hearing1

county officials had been approached by various coastal communities and concerned

residents to assist in representing their concerns to the federal and state

governments. With staffs larger than any city's or environmentalist organization's,

throughout the 1980s county government agencies increasingly took the lead in

offshore oil matters of concern to various segments of the county. In response to

U.S. Secretary of Interior Hodel's plan to open up the coasts of Alaska, Florida. and

California for renewed offshore oil development, the County Board of Supervisors

unanimously agreed to send a letter to M1vIS suggesting that the U.S. reexamine its

51 San Luis Obispo Count-v residents were presented with three separate referenda requiring consistent

"yes" or "no" votes to approve or reject, respectively, the zoning variances that the Board of

Supervisors had granted for the onshore industrialization for Platform Julius. Measure A would have

allowed Shell to build the proposed onshore processing plant. Measure B would have approved an

additional oil pump and pipeline, proposed by the Celeron company, to transport Platform Julius oil to

Shell's plant. Measure C would have approved property-line adjustments to accommodate Shell's and

Celeron's plans.

91

A % yes A: % no B: % yes B: % no C: % yes C: % no

Arroyo Grande 50.5% 49.5% 50.9% 49.1% 50.6% 49.4%

Atascadero 48.6% 51.4% 48.3% 51.7% 48.5% 51.5%

Baywood-Los Osos 36.7% 63.3% 36.5% 63.5% 36.5% 63.5%

Cambria 37.3% 62.7% 37.0% 63.0% 37.1% 62.9%

Cayucos 38.9% 61.1% 38.6% 61.4% 38.3% 61.7%

Grover City 49.4% 50.6% 48.7% 51.3% 48.7% 51.3%

Morro Bay 40.3% 59.7% 40.6% 59.4% 40.5% 9.D%

Nipomo 51.1% 48.9% 50.9% 49.1% 51.0% 49.0%

Oceano 51.3% 48.7% 50.3% 49.7% 50.2% 49.8%

Paso Robles 59.1% 40.9% 58.6% 41.4% 58.5% 41.7o

Pismo Beach 44.4% 55.6% 43.7% 56.3% 43.9% 56.1%

San Luis Obispo 36.0% 64.0% 35.6% 64.4% 35.7% 64.3%

other 52.9% 47.1% 52.7% 47.3% 52.7% 47.3%

total 45.4% 54.6% 45.2% 54.8% 45.2% 54.8%
energy policies before moving ahead with more offshore drilling (San Luis Obispo

County Historical Society clipping file: ROil on Central Coastt').

The last 15 years have been a period of dramatic learning by county and local

governments on offshore oil matters. Informants concurred that in the roughly

twenty-year period that San Luis Obispo County has faced the potential for offshore

oil development, concerns among county officials have expanded from specific

requests to protect certain coastal areas to a general skepticism about the benefits of

offshore development to the county. As one county planner remarked:

My opinion is [the county has] changed considerably even since the time of the

initial processing of the Shell Oil project [Platform Julius]. I think that in the

initial stages of the processing, there was great concern but not a basically anti-oil

position. If you look at the Board of Supervisors resolutions about MMS sales of

lots and tracts [i.e. the early 1980s Lease Sales 53 and 73], during that time period

the county's positions generally said, "These are the most sensitive; we want you

to stay away from these, we want you to leave us a reasonable buffer," but it was

not a "We don't want anything to do with oil; please don't let anything up from

Point Conception at all. So I think that's evolved clearly, even if it's in a tenyear time frame.

Concern and activism among county offshore oil opponents has also held

steady since the 1988 defeat of Platform Julius, even as the immediacy of offshore

drilling has waned. A striking instance of opponents' continuing vigilance on

offshore matters is found in the September 1991 hearing for the 1992-97 OCS leasing

program's draft EIS. County officials and other oil industry observers speculated

that public attendance and input at the local draft ElS hearing (only the first step in a

leasing process with several subsequent iterations of environmental impact analysis

and public comment) might be reduced from its 1986-88 levels. However, San Luis

Obispo County offshore oil opponents attended the event (held in Santa Maria) in

massive numbers (2,000 by one estimate) that overwhelmed the resources of its

sponsors (Lankford 1991). Santa Barbara's then-mayor, who attended the hearing1

recalled:

I went up there figuring I was going to be surrounded by oil workers that had

been bused in and others who would snarl at me when I made my statement.

But I forgot about San Luis Obispo County. And there were some 700 people

outside [the hearing] demonstrating because they couldn't get in. They had this

room that was set aside for 150 people, and they wouldn't let the hearing go on.

The leadership of this group, which was from San Luis Obispo, wouldn't let the

hearing go on until they opened up another room, which they were able to do in

the hotel... so that maybe some 200 of them could come in. I went up there

dreading what it was going to be like, and it ended up being kind of fun

(laughter) because of the way MIIMS got chastised from one end to the other of the

hearing.

cy
In regards to the growing skepticism and steady opposition to offshore

drilling over the last 10 years in San Luis Obispo County, informants cite two factors.

First, the county's political scene has been transformed, in part by offshore oil issues,

particularly Platform Julius. As of this writing, the County Board of Supervisors

and city councils in SLO, Pismo Beach, and Morro Bay include anti-offshore oil

majorities, whom residents have increasingly held accountable to this and other

environmentalist positions. County and local staffs have also become more savvy

about local controls on offshore oil issues, thanks to the lessons they have gathered

from the statewide anti-offshore oil mobilizations of the 1980s (in which coastal

governments came together to share strategies and experience) and the joint

applications they have processed with neighboring Santa Barbara County ("the

foragers of the frontier" on local offshore oil policies, according to one San Luis

Obispo County planner). The late 1980s marked the growth of a county planning

and administrative infrastructure (which includes local environmental

organizations) that specializes in offshore drilling matters, resulting in the county's

Offshore Energy Document (County of San Luis Obispo 1992); this document

describes the county's policies on offshore oil, onshore (land use) zoning, various

governmental jurisdictions, and the ways that citizens can address their concerns to

relevant governmental agencies.

Importantly, despite a century of onshore oil and gas production in the

county, such new techniques of local control emphasize hidden fiscal and

socioeconomic costs of offshore production and onshore industrialization (of the

kinds addressed by the tn-county Socioeconomic Monitoring and Mitigation

Program).52 This reveals an important aspect of local government's relationship to

oil in the environmental era: as Table 24 indicates, property taxes and other county

revenues from onshore oil and gas production have never been significant to San

Luis Obispo County's treasury, especially when compared to Santa Barbara and

Ventura Counties (which are regularly ten times the magnitude).

52Orte specific area where San Luis Obispo Countsr government has recently sought fiscal renumeration

pertains to population growth from OCS development - specifically, the impact of oil employees and

their families on public services, housing, schools, and other local services. Despite property taxes and

other forms of revenue which county governments receive from onshore corporate properties (federally

owned offshore leases create no direct revenues for county or local governments), the county has sought

other means of renumeration should services turn out to exceed revenues. To this end, in 1986 San Luis

Obispo County joined Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties in the tn-county Socioeconomic Monitoring

and Mitigation Program (SEMP), which provides estimates of actual socioeconomic costs (rather than

costs predicted in EIRs) incurred by local governments from OCS development. For an evaluation of

SEMP, see Molotch and Woolley (1994).
Table 24: Property taxes on oil and gas mineral rights

Source: California State Board of Equalization

Thus, since the late 1980s, San Luis Obispo County and many city governments have

characteristically dealt with offshore drilling during this period as an unwanted and

residual industry to be minimized and physically contained where possible.

Oil spills eclipse the industry's record as "good neighbors"

A second factor frequently cited in the county's current anti-offshore oil

position is the recent spate of oil spills, both local and distant. Informants typically

cite the 1989 Exxon Valdez spii in Alaska as having vividly illustrated the dangers

of offshore oil operations; this event gripped county residents, as exemplified by

Telegram-Tribune headlines reading, Oil spifi: What if it happened here" (San Luis

Cbispo Telegram -Tribune, April 28, 1989). Yet local spills have also become increasingly

visible to an oil-concerned public, and while some communities (particularly

around Price Canyon) have long complained about the inconveniences of oil, many

informants described the widely-held perception of an increase in the number and

severity of oil accidents

In this regard, the last seven years have been a public relations debacle for the

oil industry, particularly Unocal. Between 1988 and 1994, at least eight county spills

were attributed to Unocal's San Joaquin Valley pipeline alone; these ranged in

severity from negligible (e.g. the 1988 release of 100 gallons in front of San Luis High

School) to necessitating dramatic mediation (e.g. the 1989 crude oil seepage at SLO's

Miossi Ranch, necessitating groundwater-deaning pumps). In another instance, the

Regional Water Quality Control Board began pressing Unocal to clean up its longabandoned underground crude leak resulting from its 1926 tank far-rn fire; the site

currently remains contaminated because the spill (which Unocal estimates would

cost $30 million to clean) lies under company property away from groundwater

basins (New Tim es, April 13, 1994).

Avila Beach has been the recent site of particularly intense spills, which some

residents feel have helped overshadow Unocal's long-standing reputation as the

community's benefactor and "good neighbor." In 1992, a pipeline burst above the

cliffs of Pirate's Cove, releasing 6,300 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean. In an

even more dramatic episode, Unocal was recently forced to tear up the community's

main street to clean up oil products (15,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 7,200 gallons of

gasoline) that leaked below five blocks of property (New Times, April 13, 1994). As a

94

year tax contributions

1985 $1,040,033

1990 $1,013,074

1995 $352,508
result, construction in the affected parts of town has become impossible, since no

financial institutions will offer construction loans because of the toxicity. Clean-up

continues at a slow arid problematic pace, and Unocal has recently instituted loan

guarantees to facilitate property owners' seffing or developing their assets (Five CThes

Tim es-Press-Recorder, July 15, 1994). By January 1995, Unocal discontinued storing

crude oil at its Avila tauk farm.

Finally, in 1992 events at Unocafs Guadalupe oil field came to a head after

several years of public complaints and company denials about petroleum products

contaminating the dunes near Guadalupe Beach (on the Santa Barbara-San Luis

Obispo county line, bordered by the Santa Maria River estuary to the north, the

Nature Conservancy's Guadalupe Dunes Reserve, and the Pacific Ocean). Since

1986, the company had responded to complaints about diluent53 contaminating the

dunes by attributing the contamination to sources unrelated to Unocal's large-scale

diluent-pumping operations. In 1988, the Paso Robles-based North County Wildlife

and Marine Mammal Rehabifitation Center reported large numbers of dead animals

coated with petroleum to state officials and the company; no investigation was

launched then, since no state agency would fund toxicological tests to determine

whether the deaths were related to diluent contamination. Investigating

complaints of diluent contamination, state Fish and Game officials contacted Unocal

officials in 1990 to ask whether the company had ever had diluent spills or leaks at

its Guadalupe field. While Unocal officials provided chemical tests that appeared to

demonstrate that the diluent on the beaches was not the company's (Unocal had

reported only one leak from its Guadalupe facility to regulatory officials, a 1973 spill

of 15 gallons), they agreed to take responsibility for cleaning up the contaminated

dunes. Over the course of 1991, clean-up proceeded while officials observed that the

diluent contamination was still not abated. When winter storms in early 1992

brought a new glut of diluent to the beaches, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara

County environmentalists protested outside Unocal's oil field, bringing notice of

the contamination to the media. A Guadalupe oil field worker saw the news and

blew the whistle on TJnocal, informing state Fish and Game officials where to find

logs showing that Unocal pumped in millions of diluent gallons more than it ever

recovered (znfrz Barbanz Independent, March 17, 1994).

When state officials raided Unocal offices in July 1992, they found evidence

that for 40 years, tJnocal knew about and covered up more than 200 diluent leaks

and 31 plumes, including one opening directly into the ocean; in total, up to 8.5

million gallons had been released in the Guadalupe oil field, constituting the largest

oil spill in California history and the fourth-largest in U.S. history. In 1994, San Luis

Obispo County's district attorney hied 36 criminal misdemeanor charges of failure to

report, negligence, and water pollution against Unocal and six management-level

employees. The case was ultimately settled with Unocal being fined 51.5 million,

including $300,000 earmarked for a county environmental trust and $1 million for

Diluent is a petroleum-based solvent used to thin heavy crude o1. The solvent is pumped into an oil

well, and the thinned oil is thus more easily extracted.

95
the county general fund (Sanizi Earwrz frzdependen4 March 17, 1994). Clean-up

operations are currently continuing. The initial clean-up phase was performed on

an emergency basis without the use of an environmental impact report (to the

criticism of many environmentalists, who felt excavating- and "superheating"

contaminated sand represented a cure possibly worse than the disease) and was

completed by February 1995. As of August 1995, an Effi was underway for the larger

dean-up project (expected to take 15 years), and a high-density polyethylene wall

built into the beach to seal it off from other oil field plumes is currently being

threatened by the meandering Santa Maria River, swollen from 1995 storms.

As a result of these accidents and its Guadalupe cover-up, tJnocal saw its

reputation in San Luis Obispo County deteriorate from a long-time "good neighbor"

to a notorious polluter. Despite its recent apology to the communities affected by

the Guadalupe spill (Santa Barfrzm News-Press, March 5, 1994), Unocal's recent record

has further tarnished the image of the company and, many informants daim, the

larger oil industry in San Luis Obispo County. The Guadalupe cover-up has

confirmed offshore oil opponents' suspicions and skepticism toward the oil

industry's assurances of environmental protection. Furthermore, in a county

where the history of oil remains largely unknown to the majority of residents,

many of whom moved there in the last few decades to get away from the kinds of

industhal hazards that Unocal has recently dramatized, Unocal is increasingly

without supporters or sympathetic neighbors who can recall its historic benefits to

the county.

96
Conclusion: The Sari Luis Obispo County Factors

As our history suggests, San Luis Obispo County's present antagonism toward

oil is not explicable from the course of the county's early development, particularly

before the 1950s-60s. During the postwar era, however, a number of emerging

demographic trends and specific institutional events (e.g. SLO's Mission Plaza, Cal

Poly's transformation, the Diablo protests) served to "switch" the county away from

its previously conservative! agricultural profile. This made possible the reorientation of the county toward its current status as a predominantly liberal polity

and non-extractive economy. To some extent, San Luis Obispo County has only

paralleled national trends (e.g. national environmental concerns, the 1970s mistrust

toward the oil industry during the energy crisis). But, in other cases, specifically

local conditions (e.g. tourism opportunities) and geographical and historical

"accidents" (e.g. lack of substantial onshore development, the county's proximity to

Santa Barbara County, the recent spate of oil spills) have reinforced a negative

attitude toward offshore oil drilling.

Some important conclusions can be culled from this history. First, the public

attitudes arid policy trajectory that San Luis Obispo County has adopted toward the

issue of offshore oil development are in great part due to factors ednwJ to the

history of offshore oil development and the oil industry itself. Second, to

understand places' responses to offshore oil, one needs to attend to the influence of

institutional, economic, geographical, and cultural factors in interaction with one

another. Simple generalizations would be misleading. San Luis Obispo County has

become a unique place under the influence of a unique set of factors by virtue of the

fact that their interaction has been specific to the county and has, in many cases,

taken place only through historical contingency and chance.

We now list, by way of summary of this report, the key factors that have

given the county its current stance vis a vis oil.

SLO's "qualitw of life"

Although quality of life is something tangible and desirable for most SLO

residents, it also represents a plan for SLO's 'soft' development that doesn't include

an oil industry. There are several bases for SLO's attention to quality of life.

1. Geography and Climate. SLO is ringed by scenic hills and volcanic peaks

that not only are scenic but provide a sense of demarcation and containment that

helps block sprawl and provides a definition of place, a sense of 'we.' Residents

don't want concentration on the hills; they are their own hills by virtue of visibility

and easy foot-access. The scale of the ring is big enough for a small city, but small

enough to be visible from almost any point. Year-round ideal temperatures and

97
mild rainfall boost tourism, retirement,, and recruitment for the innovation

industries (e.g. software development and alternative energy technologies, both of which are much talked about as part of the town's future).

Critical Mass Of Historic Buildings. Economic stagnation during the 1930s- 1960s left the city's physical plant largely untouched from entrepreneurial make- overs, expansions and destruction Now there can be charm

Early Small-Town Environmentalism. Many important residents like 1919-1939 mayor Louis Sinsheimer and the 1920s Monday Club have advocated slow

growth, aesthetic and environmental standards, and plans for development long

before such ideas were described as "environmentalist or "slow-growth." They

reflect an element of historical self-consciousness of SLO's small-town quality of life

that stems from its steady economic activity, low intensity agriculture, and distance

from major urban areas. Without attributing undue significance to this earlier small-town environmentalism, its older advocates and their followers were

important allies for the city's new political generation.

Cal Poly

Perhaps more so than any other factor, the influence of Cal Poly demonstrates

the need to look outside the history of oil development to explain the evolution of

this place. The 1960s upgrade of Cal Poly operated as a switching device that helped

transform the relatively rural "cow town' into a very distinctive mix of progressive

environmentalism and social liberalism. Currently, Cal Poly's influence is felt in a

variety of ways:

On the Economy (Directly). Cal Poly is the county's largest employer and is a magnet not only for students and faculty but, as many informants attested, parents who visit their kids may choose San Luis Obispo as place to retire; alumni do the

same. The collegiate economy sustains independent, small businesses. Cal Poly is also a source of tourism: alumni return, either for campus events like "Poly Royal" or just to wander around the campus of their alma mater; parents come to visit

their kids and then revisit after kids leave for other places; and the university itself offers some tourist attractions in the form of music and theater as well as a botanic

garden, ornamental horticulture gardens, and outdoor laboratories of experimental architecture.

At the Ballot Booth. Many informants suggest the liberal perspective of San Luis Obispo County's recent Board of Supervisors and City council is due to the voting influence of Cal Polv's students and faculty.

On the Culture. Cal Poly is an important source of SLO's ambiance and

cultural resources (music, theater, etc.). For example, the city's well-established Mozart Festival was started by a music professor. The Terra Foundation (dedicated

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to creating healthy soils) was created by a Cal Poly professor. Cal Poly serves as a

cultural anchor for a larger group of city and county residents who choose to live

environmentalist, arts-oriented, and otherwise alternative lifestyles, as the city's

alternative newspaper, the New Tim es, makes apparent

Faculty, Siaff, Students, and Faculty Spouses as Activists. At Cal Poly

community service counts significantly for faculty promotion, which may explain

why some faculty are very active. A professor of architecture was the first SLO

mayor of the city's environmental era. A head of the architecture departutent

served for ten years on the SLO Architectural Review Board and the Pismo Beach

Architectural Review committee; he also runs others' political campaigns. The

blueprints for Mission Plaza were student projects, and much of the project's energy

came from faculty and students. With the Plaza came new political activism as well

as an amenity that further solidifies the SLO way of life, induding its tourist appeal.

Faculty spouses were instrumental in initiating a decade of anti-nuclear protest at

PG&E's Diablo Canyon facility. More recently, a Cal Poly staff member led the 1986

SLO-based campaign to pass Measure A, giving county voters the final say over oil

industrialization.

The Architecture Department. A very big school of architecture in a small

town, combined with the university's "hands on" philosophy changes the social

and physical texture of the town. All this further encourages the high quality of

town planning, architecture, and graphics found today in SLO and helps build a

respect for architectural expertise into the fabric of the town's minds as well as its

buildings. Importantly, buildings and architecture play a special role in creating a

self-sustammg cultural! econonuc system A certam mode of life becomes visible,

inviting, and constraimng - in the concrete Built mto the "hardware, it becomes

something that is "just there" - used, admired, and taken for granted. Even though

much of the business community has opposed the architectural innovations

(besides the Mission Plaza, the creation of architectural controls of any sort), this is

what created the "new, improved" and quite prosperous SLO. The current Chamber

of Commerce, although pushing the envelope for increased volumes of business

activity and construction, accepts and appreciates that environmental controls and

good planning are economic assets.

Nonextractive Economy

Currently, most SLO and county government officials and staff espouse plans

for future development around sustaining the (south county-centered) "quality of

life" by, for example, seeking to expand tourism and attract clean, innovative high

technology industries. These plans bode ill for offshore oil and gas drilling and

related coastal industrialization, which are perceived to be incompatible with the

official vision of San Luis Obispo County's future. However, this vision of future

development is not merely 'pie-in-the-sky;" it is largely made possible by the

predominance of nonextractive industries. These set in place an economic

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momentum toward the further development of nonextractive industries. Tourism

is one such sector, not only for SLO but all the beach towns as well. Public

employment, including Cal Poly, is another.

Agriculture, it would seem, represents a different kind of industry that could

potentially be more amenable to the oil industry. Agribusiness is typified by

corporate organization1 political conservatism, and an economistic orientation

toward natural resources, all aspects which make likely an affinity between

agnculture and oil (as exemplified by neighboring Kern County) Yet while San Lws

Obispo Countys north county is the site of both intensive agriculture and oil

industry worker residences, our research indicates that agriculture here is not as

seasoned an ally of the oil industry as it is in other places. For one reason,

agribusiness has a short history in San Luis Obispo County, and only recently has it

facilitated cultural connections to the oil-friendly agribusinesses of San Joaquin

Valley (Hatch 1977). Even as the county's family-owned farms and non-irrigated

agriculture have gradually been replaced by labor- and capital-intensive farming,

agribusiness's typically conservative regime is tempered in San Luis Obispo County

by the predominance of specialty crops with their highly educated growers. The topgrossing wine industry even supports its own tourism industry, orienting it more to

the "quality of life" concerns of other non-extractive industries in the county.

The record of oil - including nearby precedents

The events in San Luis Obispo county and elsewhere (especially Santa Barbara

County) provide a historic record, visible through the media as well as some direct

experience, of what offshore oil might mean. Although the oil industry thinks the

local public may still be thinking about "Giant" and Texas roustabouts, our evidence

mdicates they are tiunking about more local and directly accessible experience

1. A Century Of Oil - And Little To Show For It. A factor in county attitudes

toward offshore oil drilling is the history of onthore oil drilling, of which San Luis

Obispo County has a lengthy record. However, the oil industry has never been such

a presence that it could orient government, businesses and residents to its needs (i.e.

"first mover" advantages), as it has in Ventura County and northern Santa Barbara

County. Combined with the large landholding patterns of the Arroyo Grande

Valley (where most onshore oil has been located), this has meant that oil has never

affected many county residents, built local fortunes, or created economic booms.

Property taxes and other county revenues from oil production have never been as

significant to San Luis Obispo County's treasury as they have been in Santa Barbara

and Ventura Counties. The limited deposits extracted from county ranches in some

cases left residue and disturbed the land, producing complaints from ranchers that

some still remember.

The current lack of a substantial oil employment base has meant the

proportion of residents with personal memories or positive ties to oil has dedined

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as newcomers fill jobs in the expanding public sector, come to retire, or just to leave

Southern California. With no personal ties to residents who remember oil, these

newcomers are rarely swayed by arguments that have more fnrr in northern Sa_nta

Barbara County, like "oil has kept my family in work." To many of these

newcomers, the oil industry in San Luis Obispo County is characterized by its more

recent past, which has cast it in a less than favorable light.

The Santa Barbara County example. The lessons that San Luis Obispo

County acquired from its neighbor to the south represent an instance of (in this case,

geographical) contingency that is not easily generalizable to other places. There has

been much "learning" on offshore drilling matters from Santa Barbara County. In

this regard, the 1969 Santa Barbara Channel oil spill was most instructive: formerly

pro-oil county supervisors became "turned off" by oil's potential damage to local

tourism. Other county and city officials served on joint government boards and

volunteer associations with Santa Barbara counterparts, receiving data, opinion, and

strategy. Local folks, sometimes through cross-county friendships arid business ties,

acquired visible lessons of impacts on aesthetics, ecosystem damage, threats to

tourism, and air quality.

Santa Barbara County has also made many San Luis Obispo County residents

skeptical about the aesthetics of oil support facilities. Residents travel south to

shopping and events in Santa Barbara, as well as to use the Los Angeles airport and

other L.A. facilities. Oil installations are visible on this route, particularly the

platforms. These platforms were supposed to be "invisible" (as was the Gaviota

onshore facility), but they are not. Santa Barbara County's air quality, inferior to San

Luis Obispo County's, may also be directly experienced in this way and also

attributed to oil (oil is, indeed, part of the pollution picture but perhaps exaggerated

by the travelers).

Recent oil spills. Here again, the force of historical accident (literally) has

influenced the stance San Luis Obispo County has taken toward oil. Most recently,

oil accidents have come to dominate county attitudes about the oil industry. The

Avila Beach leakage from Unocal pipelines under the main street has brought

construction to a halt in this beach community with desperate business and property

owners. The decades-long Unocal Guadalupe oil field leak has released the largest

volume spill in California history, and it has still to be remediated. Perhaps most

importantly, the disclosure that Unocal suppressed information of the leaking

diluent has reinforced county residents' skepticism of the industr.

Environmentalist media

Media ordinarily support business and development - even in Santa Barbara,

the major newspaper now takes a moderate position on oil. Not so in San Luis

Obispo. The major paper (and only daily) is environmentalist and strongly anti-oil.

This guarantees - at minimum - a fair hearing for environmentalist positions. The

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fact that the San Luis Cbispo Telegram -Tribune is liberal counts for even more than what

is implied by the fact that it is the only daily paper in the county and permeates all

area markets. The other media have their agendas set by the Telegmm -Tribune arid

follow up on the stories they read. Very few informants complain about the media.

Even those regarded as strident environmentalists praise the media; indeed some

perceive it as "biased' agamst oil

Pros pects for the foture

San Luis Obispo County likely faces continuation of the trends which have reoriented many residents toward sustaining the quality of life, as a means of

protecting their lifestyles as well as their economy. The economy should further

develop in three directions: an information! service economy centered in SLO and

the south county; an agribusiness economy based in Paso Robles and the north

county; and a tourism/retirement economy located along the coast. Population

growth will likely continue in the cities where it has occurred for the last two

decades (e.g. SLO, Atascadero, Paso Robles) as well as in new commuter

communities in the periphery; however, county-wide growth will be more

moderate than in nearby Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties

Such trends, should they remain robust, suggest few opportunities in which

the oil industry could overcome opposition. Economically, most of the county

follows a track in which offshore oil drilling is seen as incompatible. The

agricultural north county remains the exception and oil's most steadfast supporter,

as evidenced by the results of recent offshore drilling referenda. However, even as

control of the county's Board of Supervisors has vacillated between conservative

and liberal, the anti-oil sentiment remains pervasive here, as it does within

important business groups. It is hard to perceive any future trends that would

permit easy passage at the poiis of a measure to permit an offshore project - as now

required by prior referendum. The course of San Luis Obispo County, remarkably

steady for several decades, has put in place a mix of population groups, institutions,

and economic dynamics that will constitute a genuine challenge for any offshore oil

development.

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Appendix A:

San Luis Obispo County Timeline

(Digits following year indicate month of event.)

1800s: Asphalt quarried for use in street paving and gas lamps (Krieger

1990).

1859.08: First oil well ever is successfully drilled at Titusville, PA.

1864: Yale Geologist Benjamin Silliman Jr. reaches positive findings in

his study of oil prospects of property from Los Angeles to San Luis

Obispo Counties. His report, which triggered the first speculation in the

south county, is refuted by Josiah Dwight Whitney and William Brewer

of the California Geological Survey (Olsen 1991).

1868: People's Wharf (later Harford Wharf) constructed at Avila, connected to

inland by narrow gauge raiLroad. Cargo is mainly lumber (Krieger 1990).

1867: Cayucos founded when Captain James Cass sees potential for a shipping

point and builds a pier, store, and warehouse. The community is subdivided into

town lots eight years later (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1867: Arroyo Grande begins its modest growth after the establishment of a

blacksmith shop and school (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1870: Morro Bay founded when Franklin Riley purchases, subdivides and sell 160

acres of land (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1871: Formerly the site of quicksilver mines, Cambria (the Latin name for Wales)

is a "brisk town, busy and prosperous" with farms and dairies (Title Insurance and

Trust Co. 1964: 40).

1872: The "loco" oil hunt begins with the first oil exploration in the Tar

Springs by a Frenchman named Roulette, who has only hand labor and

dynamite to dig. After spending $20,000 and becoming discouraged, he

hangs himself (Anv,o Grande Hemld-Rewrder, March 12, 1937).

1874: Navy lighthouse north of San Simeon coast built (Title Insurance and Trust

Co. 1964).

1876: City of San Luis Obispo (SLO) incorporated (Lee, et al. 1977).

1876.08: First railroad run from Port San Luis to SLO (Krieger 1990).

1883.11: Average monthly asphalt export via rail out from Port San

Luis/Avila is 1,000 tons (Krieger 1990).

1886: Another failed search for oil, as three men find only gas and hot

sulfur water in an Avila well at 900 feet. The hot water is used to create

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the Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort, which becomes highly popular

around turn of the century (Olsen 1986).

1886.10: Southern Pacific reaches the county's northernmost community of San

Miguel, connecting the county by rail to San Francisco. San Miguel becomes a rail

shipping point (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1886.11: Paso Robles, "long a resort spot" thanks to its hot springs and mud baths,

begins to grow after the Southern Pacific reaches it. Lots are subdivided for sale, a

town park is established, and a great hotel (to be famous statewide) is built (Title

Insurance and Trust Co. 1964: 30).

1889: Paso Rabies incorporated (Lee, et al. 1977).

1889: Southern Pacific builds the Hotel Ramona in SLO, in anticipation of the

city's rail connection (to follow 5 years later). A reputed social center, the hotel

burns down in 1906 (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1889.01: Santa Margarita is established as a town site and shipping point when

railroad reaches it in the construction of the Southern Pacific line to SLO (Title

Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1890: Union Oil Company is founded (Seventy-Six 1985).

1894.05: SLO celebrates the construction of its Southern Pacific rail connection to

San Francisco. The Los Angeles connection will take another 7 years of laying rails

to Guadalupe (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1899: Drilling begins in the Huasna at Porter Ranch by Frederic

Harkness. "A. B. Hasbrouck and B. Chandler, "pioneer oil men of

Pennsylvania and Los Angeles," drill in upper Arroyo Grande Valley."

Drilling commences throughout the Arroyo Grande oil field (AnvW

Grande Herald-Recorder, March 12, 1937).

1899: Edwards L. Doheny, whose Los Angeles oil well set off a California

oil exploration frenzy, leases acreage on Price Canyon and the Oak Park

area. Others soon follow his example, and leases are snapped up by

speculators for as much as $50 an acre (Olsen 1986).

1900: Cambria, "still isolated by mountains and bad roads," ceases to be second

largest community in county as other towns (boosted by ri1road) sap its

transportation activities (Hamilton 1974: 32).

1900: As many as 30 oil companies are active in the oil frenzy of the

south county (Olsen 1986).

1900.03: The first genuine oil strike in the county is made on the Porter

Ranch by the Alcatraz Asphaltum Company. The strike settles all doubts

that asphalt-free oil is present in the county (Armt Crande 1-lerald, March

24, 1900). -

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° 1900.04: Union Oil begins drffling on Olohan and Brown tract in east

Arroyo Grande (Arm Grande Herald, April 7, 1900).

1900.08: Directors Oil Company of Los Angeles purchases two oil claims

on the Huasna (Arroyo Grande Valley) for $20,000 (AnVW Grande Herald,

August 11, 1900).

1901: Southern Pacific finally reaches southern line at Ellwood (in Santa Barbara

County), connecting San Luis Obispo County to Los Angeles by railroad (Title

Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1901: Pismo Beach is "laid out' after the Southern Pacific connection to Ellwood is

completed (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1903.10: California State Polytechnic College - "Cal Poly" - opens to students statewide (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1903: Oil production begins in Santa Maria, generating need for liquid

petroleum transport. Pacific Coast Oil builds storage tanks at Port

Harford (now Port San Luis) and ships from fields near Graciosa (Krieger

1990).

1904.01: Brookshire Oil strikes its No. 2 well, brings up 1,200 feet of oil.

The company purchases a 1,000 barrel oil tank and complete outfit for

pumping the well, hopes to have them ready for use by the time the well

is to be placed on the pump (Anvy Grande Herald, February 13, 1904).

1904.05: The Pacific Coast Railway Company adds an extra train to

transport oil from the Careaga oil field to Port Harford (ArmW Grande

Herald, May 28, 1904)

1904.08: Union Oil's Arroyo Grande well, sunk in 1900 and thereafter

abandoned, suddenly strikes (Anvp Grande Herald, June 9, 1904).

1905.06: Tiber Oil Company strikes oil in their well on Pismo creek three

miles northwest of town. "An open secret," the strike produces oil of

not very high grade but good commercial value (An'vW Grande Herald,

June 17, 1905).

1905.11: Arroyo Grande oil field is under development, with the (false)

expectation "to be the largest oil field in the state." When finished, it

will extend 25 miles to Port Harford. Working the field are the Tiber Oil

Company, the Beckett syndicate (on Oak Park), the Crystal Oil Company

(also on Oak Park), the Logan Oil Company (on the Patchett place), and

the Perpetual Oil Company (on the Steele Ranch, to be gone by February

1906) (Anvp Gninde Herald, November 18, 1905).

1906: Price Canyon oil field is first tapped (Five cities Tim es-Press-Recrrder,

October 24, 1980).

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1906: U.s. Customs designates Port Harford (now Port San Luis) as an

international port of entry, allowing international tankers to use the port (Krieger

1990).

1906: Union Oil completes 6" pipeline from Santa Maria fields to

quarter-million barrel tank facifity at Port Harford (now Port San Lu-is)

(Krieger 199(J).

1907.01: The La Point Oil Company is organized by Arroyo Grande

businessmen to develop the Beckett well, sells $10,000 of stock. On same

day, the Mohawk Crude Oil Company of SLO is organized to develop

tracts surrounding the Beckett well and 200 acres in Tar Springs canyon

(ArmW Gmn.de Hemid, January 5, 1907).

1907.08: For $2 million, Californian Petroleum Limited builds the

Oilport refinery, employee housing and can manufacturing plant on

bluffs north of Pismo Beach, to produce kerosene, gasoline, lubricating

oil, and other oil byproducts. The refinery begins operation in

November, connected to Graciosa oil fields through 38 miles of

underground pipelines (Olsen 1989).

1907J9: British oil tanker Pinna loads 62,000 gallons of oil bound for

Yokahama, the largest single shipment to leave the county's coast.

(Olsen 1989)

1907.12: Graciosa Oil Co. seeks to back out of Japanese contract because its

wells are insufficient to meet contract's demand The underlying cause

of Oilport refinery s demise (Gidney, et al 1917 235)

1907.12: Storm batters Avila Beach Coast. The public wharf is not badly

damaged, but Oilport refinery is destroyed after only 30 days of operation;

despite initial assurances of reconstruction, it is never rebuilt. Union Oil

Company purchases Oilport and uses pipelines for a short time before

dismantling its oil tanks and moving them to the hill above Avila. The

landis sold, subdivided, and renamed Sunset Palisades (Olsen 1989).

1908.01: Lightning ignites fire at Unocal tank farm above Avila (Sin LiLis

Cbispo Eth1yTele'min, January 28, 1908).

1909.7: Union Oil joins Producers Agency to form Producers

Transportation Company and begin construction of 2,450 mile 8"

pipeline from San Joaquin Valley fields to Avila (Krieger 1990).

1910.3: Unions San Joaquin Valley to Avila pipeline completed. At cost

of $4.5 million (Si million over estimated cost), it is the largest oil

pipeline prior to W.W.I, requiring a 27 million barrel tank farm. Union

Oil eventually acquires all FTC stock and owns complete pipeline

(Krieger 1990).

1910.03: County's special detective, hired to investigate complaints of oil

on Avila and Pismo Beaches, charges Union Oil company and several

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officials from the port of dumping tar, refuse, and residuary products of

asphalt and bitumen into the bay. The accused are released on $1,000

bonds (ArmW GnzndeRewrder, April 2, 1910).

1911: Arroyo Grande (founded in 1862) is incorporated (Lee, et al. 1977).

1912: The District V office of the California Highway Commission opens in SLO to

serve San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Benito counties (Title

Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1913: First well in Price Canyon is drilled by Charles Maino, an Pismo

Beach businessman who built the original Cal Poly administration

building and SLO's first library (Five Cities Tim es-Press-Rewrder, August 4,

1978).

1913: Atascadero Colony is established as model community on 23,000 acre Henry

Ranch (originally cattle land) purchased by E.G. Lewis (Title Insurance and Trust

Co. 1964; Lee, et al. 1977).

1914: Avila Wharf is built, handles dry cargo for the Pacific Coast Coal and

Railroad Company (Seventy-Six 1985).

1915: La Cuesta Grade connecting SLO to north county is paved by the state into a

two lane concrete surface roadway (Miossi 1975).

1919: William Randolph Hearst builds Hearst Castle in San Simeon (Title

Insurance and Trust Co. 1964).

1920: Union Oil leases Avila Wharf, begins shipping oil (Seventy-Six

1985).

1921: California Mineral Leasing Act allows prospecting permits to be

issued by Surveyor General for submerged lands, forbids oil leasing

within two miles of city limits. Successful exploration allowed permit to

covert to lease front which State would receive 5% royalty (Lima 1994:

121).

1924: Financial problems at Atascadero and a jail term for town founder E.G.

Lewis (for mail fraud) bring 'hard times... to many people who had put life

savings into small ranches they counted on to bring in lifetime income.'

Currently, the only remaining public structures from the Colony era are the Italian

Renaissance revival style Administration Building, the printery, the sunken

gardens, and the hospital (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964: 41; Lee, et al. 1977).

1926: Shell Beach laid out on former pea fields (Lee, et al. 1977).

1926.04: Fire started by lightning at Unocal tank farm north of SLO,

unleashing at least 168 millions of gallons (newspapers then reported 274

million), much of which remains underground (New Tim es, April 13,

1994).

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1929-30: Union Oil Company drills in the Porter Ranch on the Huasna

(Arroyo Grande oil field). The company also acquires 850 acres from the

original 1899 Hasbrouck/ Chandler lease in the upper Arroyo Grancte

Valley (Anvtp Grande Herald -Rewrder, March 12, 1937).

1935: Pismo State Beach is established between Oceano and Pismo Beach (Title

Insurance and Trust Co 1964)

1936 11 California voters narrowly defrat referendum that would allow

offshore wells to be slant drilled only from onshore sites, with State

royalties going to acquisition of park lands (Lima 1994: 130-131).

1937: La Cuesta Grade is expanded to a four lane expressway, officially renamed

"La Cuesta Highway" (Miossi 1975).

1940: After 19 years of leasing, Union Oil purchases Avila Wharf

(Seventy-Six 1985).

1941: U.S. involvement in World War II begins. Several thousand soldiers are

sent to Camps Cook, Roberts, and San Luis Obispo during the war, boosting the

local economy. After the war, many return to the area to live (particularly in

communities like Shell Beach), boosting the county's population (Lee, et al. 1977).

1943: Richfield Oil Corporation begins mapping and exploration in

Cuyama Valley (also part of Santa Barbara County) but wont begin

extensive drilling for five more years (Title Insurance and Trust Co.

1964).

1946: City of Pismo Beach is incorporated (Lee, et al. 1977).

1948.01: A Cuyama Valley well owned by the Norris Oil Company

comes in at 50 barrels a day. Richfield Oil Corp. then buys 90% of acreage,

takes over Norris lease, and begins digging its own wells. By June and

July, new wells bring forth oil (to be shipped to a Wilming-ton refinery),

and the owner of the land which Richfield leased receives 51,000 a day in

royalties (Title Insurance and Trust Co. 1964: 50).

1949.11: Well comes in at Oak Park near Arroyo Grande, the heaviest

find to date in San Luis Obispo County (San Luis Obispo County Library

clipping file: "Petroleum).

1954: Port San Luis Harbor District formed to promote economic activity of the

port (Lee, et al. 1977).

1954: California Men's Colony opens with 1,400 older felons. A low security

facility, the institution emphasizes academic, vocational, and handicraft programs;

inmates have included Huey Newton and Timothy Leary (who escaped with help

from Weathermen) (Lee, et al. 1977).

1955.5: Shell Cunningham Tidelands Act gives autJioritj over tidelands

to State Lands Commission, creates Santa Barbara Oil Sanctuary from

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Coal Oil Point to Sum7ne-riand Bay, and authorizes development

elsewhere on the Channel coast (Lima 1994; Johnson and Nye 1977: 193).

e 1958: Hearst Castle is donated by the Hearst Corporation, becomes a state

monument. County's tourism boom begins in earnest (Title Insurance and Trust

Co. 1964; Lee, et al. 1977).

1958.01: Honolulu Oil and Tidewater Oil form joint drilling venture of

Pecho Hifis (SLO Historical Society clipping file: "Oil Fields').

1959: Grover City incorporated (Lee, et al. 1977).

1962: Cuesta College is established as junior college after 46 years as post-graduate

division of San Luis Obispo High School (Lee, et al. 1977).

1964: Construction of coastal Highway 1 is finished, connecting SLO to Monterey

County. Tourist traffic is guided directly to Hearst Castle, away from Cambria

(Hamilton 1974).

1963.08: Lopez Canyon oil well spurs renewed onshore drilling in south

county (SLO Historical Society clipping file: 'Oil Fields").

1964.10: Standard and Humble's Western Offshore No. 3 marine drilling

barge anchors 13 miles west of Oceano to explore 23,000 acre federal lease

(San Luis Obispo County Library clipping file "Petroleum in Submerged

Lands").

1965.5: U.S. Supreme Court rules that submerged lands beyond the

three-mile mark are federal property, allowing the federal government

to lease 1/2 million acres of oil-rich offshore land (Easton 1972: 94).

1967: Robert E. Kennedy becomes 2nd Cal Poly President, replacing Julian McPhee.

Kennedy sees campus achieve university status (in 1972) and boom in enrollment.

1967: After a nine-year campaign and the election of Cal Poly architecture

professor Ken Schwarz as SLO mayor, the pedestrian-only Mission Plaza is built to

provide "desperately-needed focus and direction' for downtown SLO (Lee, et al.

1977: 89).

1969.01: Santa Barbara Channel oil spill at Union Oil's Platform A.

1970.01: The County Board of Supervisors votes 3-2 to ban tidelands

drilling off San Luis Obispo County as part of the Monterey/Santa Cruz

sanctuary (San Luis Obispo County Library clipping file: "Petroleum in

Submerged Lands").

1974.11: U.S. Secretary of Interior Rogers proposes "area-wide" leasing of

OCS tracts off coast of California. (San Luis Obispo County Library

clipping file: "Petroleum in Submerged Lands").

1975: Standard Oil of California proposes supertanker port (for shipping

Alaskan crude) in Estero Bay (near Mono Bay) (Roberts 1977).

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1976.09: Standard Oil of Ohio proposes to site supertanker port (for

shipping Alaskan crude) in Avila Beach; later proposed sites include

Estero Bay and Oso Flaco Lake (in San Luis Bay) (Harris 1976a).

1977.08: First Abalone Alliance rally occurs at Diablo Canyon three years after

Mothers For Peace became legal interveners against the plant, petitioning

unsuccessfully to Atomic Energy Commission. 1,500 people attend; 47 are arrested,

most of whom are local residents (Epstein 1991).

1978.05: County Board of Supervisors unanimously recommends a 30-

miles of OCS tracts off county coast be excluded from federal leasing (San

Luis Obispo County Library clipping file: "Petroleum in Submerged

Lands")

1978.05: Rattlesnake Canyon (near Avila Beach) is proposed as an

alternate site for LNG terminal (San Luis Cbispo Telegram -Tribune, May 5,

1978).

1978.08: Second Abalone Alliance rally at Diablo Canyon attracts 5,000

demonstrators. 487 are arrested and given sentences of 15 days in jail and $300 fine

(Epstein 1991)

1978.09: Phillips Company plans oil extraction operation in Tar Sands at

Indian Knob, south of SLO airport (San Luis Obispo County Library

clipping file: "Petroleum in Submerged Lands").

1979.06: 40,000 demonstrators converge on SLO to attend the largest anti-nuclear

power rally ever held in the U.S. (Epstein 1991).

1979.07: Price Canyon oil fields are purchased by Grace Petroleum, which

proceeds to pump heavy crude oil. The easily extracted oil has long since

been depleted over the span of the field's activity (Sin Luis Cbispo Telegram - TrIbune, August 31, 1979).

1980.06: Lease Sale 53 hearings held at Cuesta College. Pismo Beach city

council issues a statement of opposition to the lease sale.

1981.02: San Luis Obispo County and seven other counties appeal to

James Watt against exploration leases at Coastal Commission

headquarters (San Luis Obispo County Historical Society clipping file:

"Oil on Central Coast").

1981.07: The Telegram Tribune publishes "Oil on the Horizon' special pull-out

section, detailing Secretary of Interior James Watts' plans for Lease Sale 53 and

consecutive future lease sales, as well as possible negative impacts on air quality,

tourism, and fishing (Sin Luis Cbispo Telegram -Tribune, July 21, 1981).

1981.07: A federal judge blocks leases on 29 Lease Sale 53 tracts off the

coast of San Luis Obispo County, in response to a suit filed by the state

and Santa Barbara County's Get Oil Out charging that the sales violated

the Coastal Zone Management Act (Sollen 1981).

110
Community event

Oil industry/development event

[Italics indice non-local event]

1981.09: Mass occupation begins at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility by Abalone

Alliance to protest licensing of the facility two days previously. By the end of two

weeks, more than 1,900 arrests have been made. The facility eventually goes on

line in late 1984 (Epstein 1991).

1983.03: Avila wharf collapses in extraordinarily stormy weather

(Seventy-Six 1985).

1983.04: Lease Sale 73 public hearing held in Santa Maria.

1984.05: ARCO, Amoco, and three other partner oil firms abandon their

claims to OCS tracts from Montana de Oro State Park to Port San Luis

after dealing with environmentalists becomes too costly (Townes 1984).

1986.11: County voters approve Measure A, automatically subjecting all

OCS activity to public referendum.

o 1984.11: At request of Pismo Beach, county considers ban on wells in

Pismo Hills facing ocean (Stephens 1984a).

1987: Western Oil and Gas Association and National Ocean Industries

Association sue to overturn Measure A.

1987 01 California Coastal Commission approves Platform Julius off

San Miguel

1987.01: San Miguel/Julius onshore processing facility proposed near

Nipomo (San Luis Obispo County Library clipping file: "Petroleum in

Submerged Lands")

1987.04: Secretary of Interior Hodel sends plan to Congress to open

leasing in Alaska, Florida and California.

1987.08: San Luis Obispo County's Board of Supervisors convey

unanimous opposition to Department of Interior's OC leasing plan and

suggest that U.S. re-examine energy policies before advocating drilling

(San Luis Obispo County Historical Society clipping file: "Oil on Central

Coast").

1988: Responding to studies linking petroleum products to cancer, state

Regional Water Quality Control Board begins pressing Unocal to clean

up underground leakage from 1926 Unocal Tank Farm fire (New Tim es,

April 13, 1994).

1988: 100 gallons bubbling up in front of San Luis High School are found

to be caused by Unocal's San Joaquin Valley to Port San Luis pipeline

(the cause of 11 spills within county). Monitoring is implemented, but

no groundwater clean-up is required (New Times, April 13, 1994).

1988.01: California Coastal Commission sues U.S. over aid that is

contingent on loosening of,'sizo-re regulations (San Luis Qbispo County

Historical Society clipping file: "Oil on Central Coast").

Ill
Community event

Oil industry/development event

[Italics indicate non-local event!

1988.01: Shell's Nipomo Mesa facilities (needed for Platform Julius) are

approved by county supervisors. The issue is prepared for June ballot as

the first San Luis Obispo County oil referendum (San Lws Obispo

County Historical Society clipping file Oil on Central Coast)

1988.06: County voters reject County Supervisors' approval of Shell's

proposed Nipomo Mesa oil treatment facility.

1989: Crude oil seepage at Miossi Property (a ranch between SLO and

Cuesta Grade) is found to be the result of leak in Unocal's San Joaquin

Valley to Port San Luis pipeline. Unocal installs pumps to dean

groundwater, which record 217,017 gallons cleaned before meter stops

keeping track (New Tim es, April 13, 1994).

1989: Unocal crews replacing portions of San Joaquin Valley to Port San

Luis pipeline discover oil-contaminated soils under two Pismo Beach

streets. No groundwater cleanup is required (New Times, April 13, 1994).

1989: SLO city crews discover plume of contaminated soil on Els Lane.

Unoral denies its San Joaquin Valley to Port San Luis pipeline is

responsible, daiming the oil is much deeper than a typical pipeline leak

(New Times, April 13, 1994).

1989: 50 gallons of oil bubbling up from the ground at SLO's Vachell

Lane and Buckley Road is traced to a stress crack in Unocal's San Joaquin

Valley to Port San Luis pipeline. By 1993, 500,000 gallons of groundwater

is deaned (New Tzm es, April 13, 1994)

1989.08: Shell abandons Nipomo Mesa as site for oil treatment facility

(San Luis Obispo County Library clipping file "Petroleum in Submerged

Lands').

1991: Regional Water Quality Control Board estimates costs of cleaning

up underground crude oil leak from 1926 tank farm fire at Si million.

Unocal disputes that cost, saying it would cost $30 million to excavate the

whole site. The spill remains contaminated because the slow-moving

crude remains under Unocal property, away from groundwater basins

(New Times, April 13, 1994).

1991.09: MMS holds hearings in Santa Maria regarding draft EIS for

1992-97 OCS leasing plans.

1992.08: SLO's environmental organization, ECOSLO, claims an

earthquake could cause massive oil spills at Unocal's Avila tank farms

and Chevron's tanks near Mono Bay (Five Cies Tim es-Press-Rewrde-r,

August 19, 1992).

1992.10: County supervisors hire consultant to prepare an FIR on

expanding the Price Canyon oil field (.uth counbgTrthune, October 24,

1992).

112
Community event

Oil industxy/development event

[Ifralics indicate non-local eventj

1992: lJnocal tears up Front Street in Avila Beach to clean up crude oil,

gasoline, and diesel fuel that leaked under five blocks of private property

next to the beach (New Tim es, April 13, 1994).

1992: A 20 year old TJnocal pipeline bursts in the cliffs above Avila

Beach, spilling 6,300 gallons of heavy crude oil into the ocean (New Times,

April 13, 1994)

1994.04: Shell plans to triple oil production in Price Canyon oil field.

Despite plans to drill seven of 65 new wells in "high environmental

constraint areas," there is little public opposition to the project, which

comes predominantly from Pismo Beach officials concerned about the

lack of information on exact locations of wells. Hearing is set for May 12

(from Thie Cies Times-Press-Recorder, April 13, 1994).

1994.04: A relief valve malfunctions on Unocal pipeline in SLO at Los

Osos Valley Road and U.S. 101. An estimated 42 gallons is spilled,

causing no significant environmental damage (New Tim es, April 13,

1994).

113
Appendix B:

1 1 T F' 1 1 L... recierat u tease tate neanngs -- a case Suiu

This section describes our in-depth case study of two federal OCS lease sale

hearings - for Lease Sale 53 (in San Luis Obispo on June 27, 1980) and Lease Sale 68

(in Santa Barbara on July 28-29, 1981) - including the public comments received

there; and newspaper coverage to measure the content and pervasiveness of

attitudes in San Luis Obispo County concerning offshore drilling and the oil

industry. Quantitative and content analyses of the draft EISs, the hearing

transcripts, and additional written statements concerning the draft EISs and lease

sales in general provide a useful way to measure and compare the sentiments of

various groups in the county, at one point in time, toward offshore oil drilling

(Gundry and Heberlein 1984). Additionally, this case study examines newspaper

coverage of the hearing to indicate how the printed media depicts and influences

the county's sentiments. The case study looks at: the draft EIS documents; who

commented in the county (e.g. government units; spokespersons from

environmentalist groups, oil industry organizations, or other associations; the

public); whether their statements were generally supportive or opposed / critical of

the draft EIS and the proposed lease sale (and which communities these

commentors came from); which themes or substantive concerns they addressed; and

how two county newspapers covered the hearings and the lease sale in general. The

findings reported here are culled from our larger comparative case study of

equivalent "local" OCS lease sale hearings in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties;

where relevant, comparisons to those two counties will be made.

We looked for and coded six categories or themes - environment, air quality,

way of life, national energy needs, physical infrastructure, and economic base55 - in

Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties equivalent "local" hearings were the 1981 draft EIS hearings

for federal 0(3 Lease Sale 68, which took place in the city of Santa Barbara (but which, as their

geographically closest hearing, Ventura County officials and residents ilso participated in). The

Lease Sale 53 and 68 hearings were chosen for comparative analysis because of their sirmlar stage in

the administrative process (public review of first draft ElS for the initial federal proposal of OCS

tract leasing) and their roughly concurrent time period (1980-81, at the first federal offering of new

OCS tracts since the 1969 Santa Barbara Channel spill). For a more detailed discussion on the

hearings, public comments, and media coverage of Lease Sale 68 in Santa Barbara and Ventura

Counties, see our respective reports on those counties.

Envirorirrre-nt includes almost every concern for offshore oil drilling's impact on the physical

environment: endangered species, other plant and animal species, water quality, and sensitive

environments. Statements predicting probabilities of impact upon the environment (e.g. oil spill

models, drill cutting analyses) were coded under this category, as were statements about indirect

environmental threats (e.g. seismic fault mapping, concerns for the use of oil tankers, fear that oil

might contaminate the cooling systems of the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor). Finally, sentiments

considered "biocentric' or generally environmentalist were coded under this category. Air quality

indudes statements concerning air quality, its measurement, and the impact offshore oil drilling could

114
hearings transcripts and written statements (quantitatively measured as lines of

\ 1-,... ,..-.-.A 1-1 I.1L ..L5'JLi VV.L ..J. ILL a .UuLjjU.LaL,L L11LLLiLV .I%AJ JJ. JLIIJLL..

responses to offshore oil drilling by one of the primary investigators (Freudenburg

and Gramling 1994). A seventh category, Legitimacy/procedure, represents this case

study's addition to this line of research.. As it became apparent in conducting the

case study, this category - voiced as critical comments on the inadequacy and

undemocratic nature of the environmental impact analysis process and what

opponents perceived as the larger intentions of the BLM, the oil industry, the

Department of Interior, and even the U.S. goveimment for the lease sale - emerged

as a sufficiently robust theme of significance to the larger comparative tn-county

research such that its specificity should not be subsumed into more substantive

categories, as it had in prior research.

The Lease Sale Draft EIS: In addition to providing scientific estimates of

potential impacts upon the environment, air quality, economic base, inftastructure,

and way of life, the draft EIS serves another important yet less visible function.

Namely, it lays the ground for future comment by various groups (government

units, the oil industry, environmental organizations, the public, etc.) not only in the

scientific evidence it presents but in what it neglects or fails to say. In the latter

regard, two themes are largely absent from both lease sale draft EISs; they are

discussed here to frame our subsequent analysis of the hearing, comments, and

newspaper coverage. First, national energy needs, as a brief section at the beginning

of each document indicates, provided the rationale for the entire lease sale. While

this themes treatment in the draft EISs was so terse that it literally approached zero

percent of both documents, national energy needs proved to be an immensely

provocative subject for both supporters and opponents of the lease sale, many of

whom devote a significant proportion of their comments to this very issue. Second,

a substantive discussion of legitimacy! procedural themes is absent in both draft

EISs. This is perhaps predictable; as a technical document, the draft EIS tended to

either reduce this theme to strictly technical issues or refer to its lengthy citations of

laws and provisions, which address the responsibilities of the BLM and the rights of

the public in the EIS process. However, as witnessed in the subsequent comments

have upon air quality. Way of life concerns offshore oil drilling's impact upon social and sentimental

facets of the "quality of life" in the affected conimuriities: the 'character" of a community, aesthetics

(i.e. visual impairment of the coastline by offshore platforms), recreational uses of the coast and other

impacted areas, residents' health and well-being, etc. The unity of categories that are typically

implied when people state '1 moved here to breathe clean air...' or "the beauty of this region is

appreciated by both tourists and local residents..." - that is, when human actors recognize the

connectedness of specific concerns for impacts upon their residence and measure them in personal terms -

is coded here as "way of life." National energy needs includes statements about the political arid

policy-oriented goals for offshore oil development which presumably are the reasons the Lease Sales

are being proposed: to reduce the need for imported oil, to protect national security, to fuel the growth

of the national economy, etc. infrastructure indudes statements about impacts upon public services and

facilities as provided by local governments, housing, schools, land use, planning, ports, highways, and

local roads. Economic base includes concerns about local economies, employment, and revenues resulting

from offshore oil drilling. Comments about the positive and negative impacts of drilling upon

commercial fishing and tourism, two major industries for much of the tr-countv area, are coded here.

115
and newspaper coverage, legitimacy! procedural questions proved to be a very

salient theme which framed not only San Luis Obispo County's response to the draft

EISs and lease sales but, increasingly, its attitudes toward the oil industry and

offshore oil drilling from the lease sale on

Who commented: In letters and oral statements, 127 San Luis Obispo County

parties used the Lease Sale 53 draft EIS comment period, and one San Luis Obispo

County party uesd the Lease Sale 68 draft EIS comment period as an occasion to

express their sentiments on the document, the lease sale, and the general prospect of

offshore oil drilling in the county. Of the 128 total corrimentors, 15 represented local

or county government agencies, one represented an oil industry organization, 11

represented organizations, and 101 spoke or wrote on their own behalf as

unaffiliated county residents (i.e. the public). Of the 101 public commentors, 20 were

Cal Poly faculty or students, most with natural science backgrounds. Here it should

be noted that, among equivalent "local" lease sale hearings the tn-counties, San Luis

Obispo County brought forth the greatest local participation1 including the greatest

number of private citizens, of any county in the comparative fri-county case study.

The relatively low turnout of organizational representatives (nine percent of San

Luis Obispo County commentors) in comparison to Santa Barbara County (41

percent of commentors) also suggests that many San Luis Obispo County residents

used their own initiative to speak out on Lease Sale 53 - perhaps a compensation for

the county's relative lack of organizational density (see "Non-profits in the county,"

above).

Supportive/opposed: Of these 128 commentors, 118 (or 92 percent) expressed

opposition to the lease sale and/or criticisms of the draft EIS; eight (or six percent)

expressed support of the lease sale and! or the draft EIS; and one (or less than one

percent) was neutral. Among equivalent "local" lease sale hearings in the tncounties, San Luis Obispo County participants were the most unanimously

opposed! critical of the lease sale; by comparison1 from 57 coinmentors in Santa

Barbara County, 51 percent were opposed! critical and 49 percent were supportive,

while from 16 Ventura County cornmentors, 13 percent were opposed/critical, 69

percent were supportive, and 19 percent were neutral. Of the eight individuals who

supported Lease Sale 53 (two personal letters and six speakers), two came from north

of the Cuesta Grade, in Los Osos and Atascadero. WThile opposed! critical

coinmentors from the county were largely (but not exclusively) from SLO and the

The 1.1 organizations represented were: American Cetacean Souetv, Audobon Society, Citizen's

Planning Association (two commentors), Clean Air Coalition. Economic Opportunity Commission,

League of Women Voters, Mothers For Peace, Sierra Club, and San Luis Obispo County Environmental

Center (two commentors).

In equivalent "local" hearings, Santa Barbara County was reprccnted by 51 commentors, in whith

eight represented local or county government agencies, seven represented oil industry organizations, 21

represented other (mostly environmentalist) organizations and 15 represented themselves (i.e. the

public). 29 commentors were Ventura County was represented by 15 commentors, in which three

represented local or county government agencies, five represented oil industry organizations three

represented other organizations, and four represented themselves (i.e. the public).

116
county's coastal communities, supportive coinmentors hailed from SLO, Arroyo

Grande, and Nipomo.

Themes of comments: As to the themes expressed in county opponents'

comments, the primary theme sounded by government units, environmentalist

organizations, and the public was the environment: 33 percent, 72 percent, and 33

percent of these respective groups' comments concerned this theme. Government

units also addressed air quality (19 percent of comments), legilimacy/ procedural

issues (19 percent), the county's economic base (14 percent), as well as the county's

physical infrastructure, its way of life, and national energy needs (all less than 10

percent). For environmentalist organizations, the environment was predictably the

most dominant theme; all others were expressed cursorily (under 10 percent for

other themes). Among the public, legitimacy/procedure issues were the second

most prominent theme (23 percent), described above. Third in public commentors'

themes prominence (14 percent) was economic base, especially tourism and fishing,

which, it was repeatedly emphasized, are extremely reliant on a pristine coast. A

note of comparison: under this category, the San Luis Obispo County fishermen

who commented on Lease Sale 53 were unanimously opposed to offshore oil

drilhirg;this contrasts with the largely supportive comments made by fishermen in

QULLa Bawara a1LL 1LLUI '..OUHUe

The public's fourth most important theme, as coded in this case study, was

way of life (12 percent of the public's comments). However, this theme garnered

more importance among public comments than is reflected in its proportion of

comments, due to a social psychological phenomenon evident in the Lease Sale 53

hearing transcripts (i.e. the county's "local" hearing). Specifically, as the hearing

winded down, many of the opposed! critical speakers increasingly sounded the way

of life theme, albeit in briefer form than most earlier speakers. Often it was

expressed in these terms: "WelL throughout this hearing you gentlemen have

heard most of the scientific and economic reasons why we're opposed to offshore

drilling, so I thought I'd tell you something different why I'm opposed to drilling off

our coast..." and then the speaker would give his or her own unique version of the

way of life theme, with the apparent intent of capturing the (dwindling) attention of

the presiding BLM officials. Public speakers may have given this kind of "quickie"

statement, we speculate, out of their own fatigue or a desire to not be repetitive (i.e.

a social psychological dynamic of the hearing); however, it is likely that some of

these final public speakers also came to the hearing unprepared to speak but

changed their minds as the hearing proceeded, a manifestation of the intensity of

feelings the hearing raised among the public. At any rate, these brief way of life

statements are underreported due to the case study's method (which measures lines

of hearing transcript text).58

If the number of speakers invoking way of life were counted,it is likely this theme would rise in

importance.

117
The public's fifth most important theme, national energy needs (nine

percent), deserves some comment This theme was most prominently invoked

among the lease sale's supporters, many of whom came to the June 27th hearing

from outside the county (e.g. oil industry spokespersons, pro-economic

development associations from Santa Barbara County). However, public

commentors largely invoked this theme in a critical manner, for example,

criticizing the federal governments haste to exploit non-renewable energy resources

and neglect research into renewable resources. Several public opponents gave a

particularly local slant on this theme, criticizing the government for urging San

Luis Obispo County to "do its share" for national energy needs while overlooking

the county's contributions from Diablo Canyon's nuclear power plant; here, the

suggestion was that residents did not want the benefits of another iocnlly unwanted

energy project to go elsewhere while the costs and potential impacts remain in the

county.

News-paper coverage: The case study looked at the amount and content of

coverage by the Sm Lziis Chispo Te1eninz -Tribune and the Five Cities Tim es-Press--Recorder as

found in news articles, editorials, and letters to the editor published in a ten day

period around the hearings, from two days before to seven days after. An important

note: while many papers covered both hearings, much of our descriptions of

newspaper behavior is based upon the hearing closest to the newspaper's home,

where coverage is likely to be heaviest (i.e. Lease Sale 53 for the Telegrwn-Trzbune and

Tim es-Press-Recorder). Altogether, both San Luis Obispo County newspapers coverage

was in-depth: the Tim es-Press-Recorder devoted 546 column lines of text, and the

Telegrwn-Trthune devoted 443 column lines. By comparison, Santa Barbara's and

Ventura's major daily newspapers devoted 334 and 423 column lines, respectively,

for their "local" hearings. Another important comparison can be made to with the

Sin frz Maria Tim es, the daily newspaper for the Santa Barbara County city 30 miles

south of SLO, whose readership includes a significant proportion of oil industry

managers and workers; this paper gave the SLO Lease Sale 53 hearings ordv 158

column lines of text.59 The two San Luis Obispo County newspapers'

characteristically extensive coverage of offshore oil drilling issues previously

described is borne out by this evidence!'°

The Telegmm -Tribune's coverage of the hearings began before the June 27th

hearing, as' the newspaper gave its readers advance notice of the June 27th draft EIS

hearing and informed them about the procedures for getting on the hearing's

59 SartaMzria limes provided no coverage of the 1981 Lease Sale 68 draft EIS heanngs (the 'local"

hearings for Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties in the comparative tn-county case study).

60A Five Ci ii esf Th'ss-Rewrvier staff member claimed that his paper's extraordinary coverage of the

Lease Sale 53 hearing - the greatest coverage in the entire comparative tn-county case study -

manifested a new concern for offshore issues prompted by its Five Cities readership. He recalled that

"when the lease sales came up, that's when {the county's oil opposition] all of a sudden just seemed to

kind of mushroom. Suddenly there were people in opposition to it, and there was so much interest

around here, I think that's why we followed them as heavily as we did."

'is
speakers list. As for the hearing itself, the newspaper reported the statements and

sentiments of opposed! critical speakers slightly more thaii supportive speakers;

opposed! critical speakers received 88 percent of the Teiegnvn -Tribune's coverage,

whereas only 81 percent of all sentiments expressed at the hearings were coded as

opposed/critical (reflecting the influence of supportive non-local oil industry

representatives). The Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder (as well as the SZn hi Maria Times)

gave a fairly accurate representation of the proportion of opposed / critical and

supportive speakers

The Tele7nm -Tribune devoted its coverage to three groups, government units

(56 percent of the paper's coverage), the public (37 percent), and other associations

(seven percent); no environmental groups were covered. Its coverage attributed to

government units primarily the themes of the environment first, then

legitimacy/procedure and economic base; the pubic was predominantly associated

with way of life, economic base, and environment themes. The Tim es-Press-Recorder

devoted 57 percent of its coverage to government units, 19 percent to oil industry

organizations, 16 percent to the public, and nine percent to environmental groups.

This paper's coverage attributed to government units primarily

legitimacy/procedure and environment themes, and less so national energy needs

and economic base. Oil industry organizations were associated in the Tim es-PressRecorder with the environment (i.e. technological innovations to protect it) and then

national energy needs, while the public was associated with environmental themes

first, and then legitimacy! procedure and national energy needs, and finally air

quality and economic base. The paper associated environmental groups with strictly

environmental themes.

Conclusion: Table 24 shows the proportions of comments devoted to

environment (Env), air quality (AQ), way of life (WOL), legitimacy! procedure (LI F),

national energy needs (NEN), infrastructure (Inf), and economic base (EcB) themes

in the Lease Sale 53 draft EIS, the oral statements of all speakers at the June 27, 1960,

draft EIS hearing in SLO, the oral and written statements of all San Luis Obispo

County commentors (e.g. government units, environmentalist groups, the public)

about Lease Sale 53 and its draft EIS, and the subsequent coverage of the zzz Luis

Chispo Telegram -Tribune and the Five Cities Tim es-Press-Recorder.

119
Table 25: Proportions of comments arid themes regarding Lease Sales 53 and 68 in

San Luis Obispo County [lines of text from documents and transcripts]

Source: BLM Final EIS,61 Proposed 1981 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale, Offshore

Central and Northern California: OCS Sale iJo. 53; BLM, Final EIS, Proposed 1982 Outer Continental

Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale, Offshore Central and Northern California: OCS Sale No. 68; BLM,

Public Hearing on Draft Environmental Statement for Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Lease Sale No.

53, Central and Northern California: Son Luis Obispo, California, June 27, 1980; SUM, Public Hearing on

Draft Environmental Statement for Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Lease Sale No. 68: Santa

Barbara, California, July 28-29, 1981; letters from San Luis Obispo County regarding Lease Sales 53 and

68, held at MMS library, Camanillo, California; San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune, 6/25-7/5/80 and

7/26-8/4/81; Five Cities Times-Press-Recoder, 6/25-7/5/80 and 7/26-8/4/81

As this quantitative data indicates, San Luis Obispo County concerns on offshore oil

drilling are not confined to the substantive issues that the federal government and

the oil industry addressed in the Lease Sale 53 draft EIS. While local commentors

addressed the lease sales potential impacts to the county's natural environment, air

quality, way of life, infrastructure, and economic base, they also raised less

scientifically manageable issues about national energy needs and especially

legitimacy! procedure that the draft EIS did not address. As our qualitative analysis

of their comments and additional interviews corroborate, their emergent

A methodological qualification: Strictly speaking, the final EISs for the lease sales were the

product of public responses to two previous versions of the EISs, and so the documents coded in this case

study were published at the end of the respective EIS/public comments/media coverage sequence

investigated in the comparative tn-county studv. While there is room for some speculation that the

final ES might have produced fewer questions of legitimacy and procedure from the public than its

draft versions in fact produced, there are two reasons why we feel coding the final EISs was justified.

First, we did not code the public comments sections of the final versions, and so what remained was

structurally the same document as the draft versions. Second, the final versions of the lease sales EISs

reached the same conclusions of negligible environmental impact and showed the same naiveté about

the social impact of the E1S process itself which resulted in the public outav in the first place. That is,

despite their modifications in substance, the final EIS was essentially the same document used to reach

the same conclusions as the draft EIS was.

120

Env AQ WOL L/P NEN Inf EcB

LeaseSale68and 60% 5% 9% 0% 0% 9% 17%

Lease Sale 53 draft EISs [13110] [1157] [1997] [01 [31] [1874] [3614]

Lease Sale 53 hearing 34% 7% 9% 26% 10% 3% 11%

in SLO [2017] [3971 [505] [1495) [597] [198] [641]

San Luis Obispo 35% 10% 8% 21% 8% 6% 12%

County commentors [2387] [7151 [576] [1494] [5531 [407] [859]

San Luis Obispo 29% 6% 10% 27% 4% 3% 20%

Telegram-Tribune [] [14] [26] [67] [111 [8] [50]

Five Cities 44% 4% 4% 24% 17% 0% 7%

Times-Press-Recorder [1] [121 [11] [71] [491 [0] [20]
legitimacy! procedure theme expressed the concern (and often anger) that the county

might be on the short end of oil driffing decision-making made far from the Central

Coast, and that this decision-making failed to consider local concerns which county

representatives had previously declared in preliminary Lease Sale 53 scoping and

environmental impact analysis as well as earlier oil industrialization controversies.

Their national energy needs theme typically expressed locals exasperation and

dissent to the argument that the county needed to accept offshore oil drilling in

order provide its share of the nation's resources.

Through the filter of local newspapers, the legitimacy/procedure theme

continued to loom large in representations of the county's attitudes toward offshore

oil drilling. This case study's tracking of the treatment of themes, through

quantitative and qualitative methods, from document to comments to newspaper

coverage makes visible the San Luis Obispo County pattern of issue zmplflaziion. The

finding that legitimacy/procedure and, to a lesser extent, national energy needs

emerged and were sustained in Lease Sale 53 as a prominent "counter-argument"

among county commentors is more than academic. Legitimacy / procedure issues

conveyed at this hearing would parallel subsequent themes of county opposition to

offshore oil drilling. The perceived failure of the federal government and the oil

industry to address this theme in Lease Sale 53 and future events would lead to the

call among county offshore drilling opponents to exert control over the decisionmaking process

121
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126
List of those consulted or interviewed

(Partial list)

Persons are listed according to the county with which they are most knowlegable (usually the county

where they live or work). Many informants, however, provided useful information on other

communities or counties with which they were familiar.

San Luis Obispo County:

Joseph Amanzio, Professor of Architecture, Cal Poly

Patricia Beck, County Planner

Phyllis Beggs, Finance Director, Pismo Beach

Richard Boyle, Official, Unocal.

George Brand, Former Editor, San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune

James Bray, Official, Unocal

Jerry Bunin, county reporter, San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune

Ellen Carroll, County Environmental Coordinator

Allan Cooper, Professor and Director, Architecture, Cal Poly

Ken Curtis, City Planner, Pismo Beach.

Sheree Davis, Director of Govemmental Affairs, SLO Chamber of Commerce

Bill Dejarnette, President, Grover City Chamber of Commerce.

Evelyn Delany, County Supervisor

Jerry Diefenderfer, Former County Supervisor, Rancher, Paso Robles

John Euphrat, County Planner, Energy Division.

Janet Farris, Local Historian, Avila Beach.

Nicholas Ferravanti, Businessman, Activist, Paso Robles

David Garth, Executive Director, SLO Chamber of Commerce

Brian Haley, Department of Anthropology, UCSanta Barbara

Walter Harris, Associate Director of admissions, Cal Poly

Ampie Hayberg, County Auditor's Office

Mike Hodgson, Editor, Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder.

Jean Hubbard, South County Historical Society

Daniel Krieger, Professor of History, Cal Poly, President, County Historical Society

Bonnie Krupp, Institutional Studies Office, Cal Poly

Kurt Kupper, Former County Supervisor, Director, ECOSLO.

Sam Leonard, County Assessor's Office

Dorine Liberto-Blanck, City Planner, Arroyo Grande.

Howard Mankins, Former County Supervisor, Former Mayor of Arroyo Grande,

rancher

Ken McCall, Reporter, San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune.

Carolyn Moffett, Port San Luis Harbor District.

Robert Nimmo, Former State Assemblyman, former State Senator, Atascadero.

Gerard Parsons, Former Commissioner, Pt. San Luis Harbor

David Ryal, Director, Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce

Kenneth Schwartz, Former Mayor of SLO, Professor of Architecture, Cal Poly

Sandy Sidah, Records & Information Office, Cal Poly

127
Sandy Silver, civic activist, Mothers For Peace.

Ernest Smith, Rancher, Smith Drilling, Paso Robles,

Marcia Stillman, County Assessor's Office

Michael Stover, Editor, San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune.

Thomas Sullivan, City Planner, Grover City.

William Weldon, Unocal

Santa Barbara County:

Robert AImy, Former Manager, County Resource Management

Douglas Anthony, County Energy Division

Dorothy Benford, Santa Maria Historical Museum

Barney Brantingham, Columnist, Santa Barbara News-Press.

Ross Brunetti, Engineer, California Division of Oil and Gas.

Melinda Burns, Reporter, Santa Barbara News-Press.

Andy Caldwell, Director, Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business (COLAB)

Richard Chenoweth, Santa Maria Historical Museum

Larry Crandeil, Real estate developer, civic volunteer.

Kevin Drude, County Energy Division

Fred Eissler, Scenic Shoreline Preservation Conference

Scott Ernathius, Geologist, Mobil Corporation.

Michael D. Fox, Former Attorney, Environmental Defense Center.

Carla Friske, Office of State Senator, Jack O'Connell.

David Gebhard, Professor Architectural History (late), UCSB

Jean Holmes, League of Women Voters.

George Hobbs, Former Mayor, Santa Maria.

Olga Howard, Santa Maria Citizens Planning Association

Joyce Howerton, Mayor, City of Lompoc

Barbara Hutchins, Office of Planning and Development, Santa Maria

Robert Kallman, Former MMS official, Former County Supervisor

Joan Kerns, President, Get Oil Out.

Robert Klausner, businessman, civic volunteer.

Linda Krop, Attorney, Environmenal Defense Center.

Stephan B. Logan, Building Contractor, Board of Directors, South Coast Congregate

Care.

Sheila Lodge, Former Mayor, Santa Barbara

Morton Maizlish, President, Board of Realtors.

Mark McGinnes, Lawyer, TJCSB Lecturer, Environmental Studies.

Michael McGinnis, Dames and Moore

Stephan L. Miles, Attorney.

Paul Mills, Former Director, Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Toni Mivoshi, Former county supervisor, City Council Member, Santa Maria

Donald Olson, City Planner, Santa Barbara

Luis Perez, County Energy Division

Michael Powers, Deputy Director, Santa Barbara County Association of

Governments.

128
Gail Rappaport, Attorney, Former Board member, Center Stage Theatre.

Albert Reynolds, Former Director, County Office of Environmental Quality.

Lesley Ridley-Tree, Director, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, philanthropisL

Jim Ryerson Former Official, County Air Pollution Control District

Darwin Sainz, tlnocal official, rancher..

Francis Sarguis, Attorney, Former President, Get Oil Out.

Patricia Schewczyk, Santa Barbara League of Women Voters

Mark Schniepp, U(B Economic Forecast Project.

Robert Sollen, Former environmental reporter, Santa Barbara News-Press

John Stahl, Official, Molino Oil Corporation.

Robert Campbell-Taylor, County Assessor's Office

Alexander Velto, Realtor (late).

Gaye Warren, Western States Petroleum Assocation (WSPA)

Glenn Wharton, businessman, Board of Directors, Fund for Santa Barbara.

Nick Welsh, News Editor, Santa Barbara Independent.

Ventura County:

Jeff Attebu.iy, Unocai

Lee Bafalon, Attorney, Chevron.

Pat Baggerly, Environmental Activist

Russ Baggerly, Aide to County Supervisor.

Doris Black, Civic Volunteer.

Phil Blackburn, Staff, Texaco

Linda Brewster, Mayor, Fillmore.

Mark Capelli, Staff, California Coastal Commission

Steve Chawkins, Columnist, Ventura Star.

Bill Clawson, Tourism Bureau, Ventura.

Terry Covington, California Coastal Operators Group (CCOG).

Joseph DeVito, Mayor, Ojai.

Glenna Deane Dovey, Oxnard League of Women Voters

David Eaton, Former County Supervisor.

Don Gluyas, Unocal.

Stan Greene, Citizens to Preserve the Ojai

Dorothy Haaze, Fillmore Historical Society

Edward Hall, Petroleum Geologist, Unocal.

Jean Harris, Ormond Beach Task Force

Charles Johnson, Ventura County Historical Society

Gene Kjellberg, County Planner

Barbara Kornylo, Staff, Texaco

Ed Laughman County Assessor's Office.

Judy Lazar, City Council member, Thousand Oaks.

Cynthia Leake, Civic volunteer, Ventura.

Bernard Leavitt, Civic volunteer, Ventura.

Isabel Leavitt, Civic volunteer, Ventura

Greg Mansfield, Reporter, Ventura Star

129
Lou Mazarrio, Staff, County Planning (oil division).

Robert McKinney, City Council, Ojal.

John McWherter, Former Ventura City Council member

Snence Mitchell. Petroleum Geologist

Jim Monahan, Oil supply company owner, Former Ventura City Council member.

Neil Moyer, Texaco, Former member, County Air Pollution Control District.

Jeff SanMarchi, Editor, The Voice (Ojai/ Ventura independent newspaper)

John Sterling, Staff, Patagonia Incorporated

Greg Stratton, Mayor, Simi Valley

Burton Swope, City Editor, Ventura Star

Paul Tebble, Staff, Patagonia Incorporated.

John Thompson, Oil industry businessman (compressor repair)

Judith Triem, Historian, Ventura County.

Richard Warchol, Reporter, Ventura Star.

Dorill Wright, Cahforma Coastal Conurussioner (Pt Hueneme)

Non-local Informants:

Svein Andersen, Professor of Business, Oslo University (Norway)

David Brown, State lands Commission

Gray Brechin, Dept of Geography, UC Berkeley.

Faye Cox, Staff, Texaco

Avery Guest, Population Reseach Center, Univerity of Washington, Seattle.

Dan Haifley, Former Director, Save Our Shores

Brenda Hearing, Carnegie Foundation Library (Columbia University)

Susan Hershberger, Shell

Paul Langland, ARCO

Paul Leonard, Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Department of Housing and Urban

Development, Washington DC.

Shaun-Michael Morse, Wells Fargo Bank, San Francisco

William Tanner, Exxon

L3
The Department of the Interior Mission

As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility

for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural resources. This includes fostering

sound use of our land and water resources; protecting our fish, wildlife, and biological diversity;

preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places;

and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our

energy and mineral resources and works to ensure that their development is in the best interests

of all our people by encouraging stewardship and citizen participation in their care. The

Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for

people who live in island territories under U.S. administration.

The Minerals Management Service Mission

As a bureau of the Department of the Interior, the Minerals Management Service's (MMS} primary

responsibilities are to manage the mineral resources located on the Nation's Outer Continental

Shelf (OCS), collect revenue from the Federal OCS and onshore Federal and Indian lands, and

distribute those revenues.

Moreover, in working to meet its responsibilities, the Offshore Minerals Management Program

administers the OCS competitive leasing program and oversees the safe and environmentally sound

exploration and production of our Nation's offshore natural gas, oil and other mineral resources.

The MMS Royalty Management Program meets its responsibilities by ensuring the efficient, timely

and accurate collection and disbursement of revenue from mineral leasing and production due to

Indian tribes and allottees, States and the U.S. Treasury.

The MMS strives to fulfill its responsibilities through the general guiding principles of: (1) being

responsive to the public's concerns and interests by maintaining a dialogue with all potentially

affected parties and (2) carrying out its programs with an emphasis on working to enhance the

quality of life for all Americans by lending MMS assistance and expertise to economic development

and environmental protection.