Please help protect Santa Barbara County and beyond from the impacts of the proposed Phillips 66 Rail Terminal.

This is not our first plea for your help and it won’t be our last. This Thursday and Friday, Feb. 4 and 5, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission is holding a hearing to consider whether to approve or deny a rail terminal at the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery in the Nipomo Dunes that would accommodate mile-long trains full of volatile crude oil. The hearing will be at the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Chamber, 1055 Monterey St., Room D170, San Luis Obispo. Overflow seating, with live streaming, will be in the Fremont Theater next door.

Our own inboxes and local newspapers have been full of reports and opinions about the proposal. You have probably seen a lot about this proposal. Many cities and counties (including Santa Barbara County, and the cities of Carpinteria, Santa Barbara and Goleta) and special districts have urged San Luis Obispo County to deny the project.

Now is the time for you to express your opposition. County planning staff have recommended denial of the project; this is heartening, but too much is at risk. We need your voice to be heard. Please don’t miss the last link, which is SBCAN’s own.

Here is the link to the Planning Commission Agenda:
http://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Assets/PL/Santa+Maria+Refinery+Rail+Project/Phillips+66+Planning+Commission+order+of+the+day+both+feb+4+and+5.pdf 

Here is the link to the highly informative page put together by Mesa Refinery Watch explaining the logistics of the hearing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwGiaUb2pm0PZVhTV25MLUstcHM/view?usp=sharing

Here is the link to the San Luis Obispo Tribune’s editorial urging denial of the project:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/opinion/editorials/article57490638.html

And here, again, is the link to the SBCAN issue paper on the subject: http://www.sbcan.org/impacts_and_risks_from_oil_trains_and_the_phillips_66_rail_spur_project

Many people will give heartfelt and scientific testimony about the potential impacts near the project site and impacts to our planet. SBCAN’s paper details specific potential impacts in Santa Barbara County. We urge our members to speak at the hearing and cite potential impacts in our county. Please let us know, at [email protected], if you will be able to testify on our behalf. And please join the rally at noon in front of the County Government Center, 1055 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo.