Toppled Huntington Oil Rig Spills Into Hermosa Drilling Debate

A 60-foot oil rig tumbled over on Monday afternoon in Huntington Beach, prompting the evacuation of nearby residents and causing a temporary outage in the area.

The incident soon sparked a war of words with anti-oil activist Jeff Cohn and E & B Natural Resources, the oil company that wants to drill in Hermosa Beach. The oil production project, which would take place at the city’s maintenance yard at 6th Street and Valley Drive, will be voted on by Hermosans in November of 2014. (Editor's note: an earlier version of this story said the vote was to be on Nov.  5)

After the accident in Huntington Beach, Cohn, founder of the Stop Oil Drilling in Hermosa Beach website, sent out a mass email stating that the downed Huntington rig was owned by E & B.

E & B on Tuesday sent out an email via Eric Rose of the lobbying firm, Englander, Knabe & Allen, which stated: "Despite the claims (see the email below) that apparently have been widely disseminated, E&B Natural Resources had nothing to do with the incident. Sadly, this is another lie on the part of the anti-oil crowd."

Hermosa Beach Patch reported on Monday that the Huntington oil site was owned by E & B, but has now retracted the story.

According to the Easy Reader News:

Cohn’s claim was based on oil site mapping by the California Department of Conservation that lists the site as being owned by South Coast Oil Corporation (SCOC). According to Steve Layton, President of E & B Natural Resources, E & B purchased Angus, a subsidiary of SCOC, when SCOC filed for bankruptcy. However, Angus sites were just a portion of SCOC sites and the site where Monday’s accident occurred was not an Angus property.

Rose issued another press release on Wednesday, calling on Cohn to retract and apologize for his statements, saying, "attorneys for E&B point out to Mr. Cohn that his statements are defamatory, and that his willful ignorance of the facts constitutes actual malice. Mr. Cohn’s deceptive campaign was a malicious effort to mislead his supporters and the media into reporting something that he knows is false in order to disparage E&B and impact an upcoming election."

Cohn released the following statement on Thursday: 

"NoBPinHB would like to apologize for making an honest mistake & falsely accusing E&B Natural Resources of being involved in the oil derrick accident dated October 14, 2013.  We have retracted the article headlined "E&B Natural Resources Huntington Beach Oil Rig Collapses", this email below and regret any misinformation reported.  We made this error reviewing public legal documents associated with South Coast Oil Corp and E&B.  It was an honest mistake! 

"NoBPinHB always strives to ensure that all of the information presented on this web site is accurate.  Should there be any other errors or inaccuracies please contact us directly to ensure immediate correction."  

For some in Hermosa Beach, who owns the Huntington rig is not important. 

"Doesn't matter if it's E&B, A&C, or D&F---drilling will lead to problems and spills," wrote Hermosa Beach Patch reader Jack Charles on the site. "California needs to concentrate on renewable energy and the jobs it will create. We need to lead."

Steve Layton, President of E & B Natural Resources, insisted that the toppled rig in Huntington and the rigs proposed for Hermosa are different, and the the Hermosa rigs would not be as near to homes, according to the Easy Reader News. 

What do you think of this whole incident? Tell us in the comments.