Trump intervened in a battle over a fraught Santa Barbara oil pipeline, but why? It won’t affect gas prices or foreign imports, experts say. Many suspect ulterior motives.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/trump-intervened-to-revive-a-fraught-santa-barbara-oil-pipeline-but-why/
42 points · 8 comments · view on lemmy.world
8 Comments
xenomor@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 6d
This is not surprising or complex. trump has a general interest in supporting the proliferation of oil production because he’s ether vested directly, or he wants to be popular with cohorts that are. Furthermore, this is an opportunity to flex his power over states and local communities, which he derives personal pleasure from. Finally, he gets to actively hurt constituents, which he has literally no respect for, and actively despises.
Corvidae@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 6d
I was a kid growing up in the Southern California area, and I remember there were lots of tarballs on San Diego area beaches. We couldn't walk on the beach without getting black tar on our feet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6d
La Brea tar pits, Indigenous southern Californians using bitumen to water proof vessels, wooden sailing ships taring their hulls in LA harbor. Those tar balls have been seeping out of the Monterey formation since well before 1969.
Corvidae@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 6d
Oh sure, but today you can walk on the beach without getting tar all over your feet, and prior to that incident you could as well. There was a point shortly after that spill that you could not avoid getting black feet. Here are some retrospectives:
https://santamariatimes.com/lifestyles/photos-1969-santa-barbara-oil-spill-impetus-of-modern-environmental-movement-in-u-s/collection_87f8149a-3a9b-5fb1-b1a2-fbc7d181393f.html
https://www.audubon.org/news/devastating-photos-santa-barbara-oil-spill
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6d
You really gonna try to oh sure away the La Brea tar pits. Woolly mammoths, dire wolves, giant sloths, saber toothed cats along with rodents, birds, and reptiles got a little more than tar on their feet. Been seeping for a long time.
San Diego does not get effects of continual seepage, Monterey formation (where the oil is) goes offshore around south Newport Beach. Seepage more prevalent in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Of course was worse during spill, but historical records of seepage in La Harbor exist and it continues to this day.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 6d
It's simple. They gave him money.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 6d
Is there a single corporate news outlet (MJ may qualify, but in general) who can state the obvious now?
No “suspect”, no “critics say”, none of that waffling bullshit. The corrupt demented rapist - GO
silence7@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 6d
Talking Points Memo too, but not any with access and big audiences