Forty years ago this month, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel from Union Oil's Platform A six miles offshore and fouled the coastline from Goleta to the Rincon, as well as all four of the northern Channel Islands.
To commemorate the event, which some scholars believe sparked the modern environmental movement, the UCSB History Associates are sponsoring a talk by Josh Ashenmiller titled "From ‘Get Oil Out' to ‘Drill Baby Drill': Offshore Oil Since the 1969 Disaster." A history instructor at Fullerton College, Ashenmiller will speak at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 25, in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building.
The event is free, but advance registration is recommended and can be arranged by calling the UCSB Office of Community Relations at (805) 893-4388. The weekend parking fee is $3.
Ashenmiller, a resident of Los Angeles, received his doctorate in United States history from UCSB in 2004. He is a specialist in environmental policy of the 1970's, and published an article on the Alaska Oil Pipeline in the journal Pacific Historical Review.
The History Associates talk is part of a series of events organized by UCSB's environmental studies program that takes a look back at the 1969 oil spill and also looks forward to continuing issues of oil drilling, energy independence, and environmental activism.
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