U. S. Rescinds Exxon Permit to Ship Oil

The Exxon Corp.’s two-year permit to ship oil by tanker along 400 miles of California’s coastline--including past Ventura and Santa Barbara counties--has been rescinded, elated environmentalists announced Tuesday.

The U. S. Minerals Management Service, in a letter to Exxon last week, said that because the Houston-based company has not moved any crude oil by tanker for 11 months, a 1995 agreement allowing Exxon to ship crude oil by tanker from San Francisco to Los Angeles should be terminated.

Environmentalists, however, were quick to credit a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and Citizens Planning Assn. for placing pressure on the federal agency to end the tanker traffic.

Filed in April by the Environmental Defense Center, the suit sought an injunction against tanker traffic until there was comprehensive public review.

Over the objections of environmentalists and Santa Barbara County officials, the federal agency allowed Exxon to send Santa Barbara offshore oil via pipeline to San Francisco and then ferry it back down the coast by tanker. The agency agreed to monitor the tanker traffic for two years, then reassess the need for more monitoring.

Exxon officials did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Minerals Management Service spokesman John Romero said that with litigation still pending, he could not comment. But he said the June 6 letter from agency Regional Director J. Lisle Reed to Exxon announcing termination of the tanker monitoring agreement “speaks for itself.”

Meanwhile, Linda Krop, a senior staff attorney for the Environmental Defense Center, said she has learned that the federal agency will soon file a motion to dismiss the suit. The plaintiffs are likely to agree, she said.

“At least now we feel safe,” she said.