Oil Has to Come from Someone’s Backyard

This article uses the case of Santa Barbara County, California, to argue that the opposition to oil well drilling on Southern California’s urban neighborhoods and beaches was contingent on place, and it analyzes the implications of this contingent opposition in the context of widespread support for autocentric, dispersed, and fossil-fuel-dependent regional development. Those who protested drilling in their midst supported extraction in places “isolated” or “remote” from their urban surroundings, and they based their approval on contemporary assessments of human beneficial uses of natural resources. They supported extraction generally because the products derived from petroleum were essential to their daily lives. The article also extends the literature by showing that drilling opposition was contingent on time. In doing so, it demonstrates how approval of extraction in “isolated” or “remote” areas during the interwar period had unanticipated, path-dependent consequences. The case of Santa Barbara County casts light on the preponderant support regionally, if not nationally, for economic and social systems sustained by fossil fuels. Further, it addresses questions regarding contribution to the materialization of these systems. Sustaining automobility required relentless petroleum extraction. Drilling in someone’s backyard had widespread support and path-dependent existential consequences.