CAP on Chamber's endorsement of Measure J

C.A.P. Raises questions ABOUT Carpinteria Valley chamber’s  position-change on Measure J

CARPINTERIA, CA – April 26, 2010 – C.A.P. (Citizens Committee Against Paredon Initiative) is astonished by the Carpinteria Valley Chamber of Commerce’s sudden endorsement of Measure J, the Paredon Oil & Gas Development Initiative.

In February 2010, the Carpinteria Valley Chamber of Commerce Board decided unanimously to take a ‘neutral’ position on Measure J, and to provide their membership with a  “compare and contrast report” to help their members make an informed decision at the June 8 election.  

“Measure J is a complicated, multifaceted issue,” says Donna Jordan, C.A.P’s co-chair and former mayor. “We are disappointed that the Chamber never took us up on our offer to help them create the report.”

The promised “compare and contrast report” was never produced. The Chamber stated this was due to the “hours of research and writing it would have taken” to prepare the document. Further the Chamber felt there was a “general lack of equal information on both sides of the issue” to undertake the process.

Merely two months after their initial “neutral position,” the Chamber Board decided to endorse Measure J, according to a statement the Chamber released on April 23, 2010, “as a demonstration of business advocacy by the CVCC on behalf of one of its member businesses, Venoco, Inc.”

Jordan added, “We urge the remaining businesses represented by the CVCC to make an informed decision based on their own research and analysis of Venoco’s 50-page Oil and Gas Drilling Initiative.”

 About Citizens Committee Against Paredon Initiative

An official ballot measure committee, Citizens Committee Against Paredon Initiative is a grassroots group of community volunteers, including four former mayors, who are deeply concerned about the future of our small city. The group was formed to stop Venoco’s attempt to develop a massive onshore oil drilling project -- the proposed Paredon Project -- within the City of Carpinteria without review by the agencies responsible for the health and safety of the community. Carpinterians from every walk of life and political persuasion have come together to face a threat that could change the physical face and social fabric of our community. That threat is the proposed Paredon Oil & Gas Development Initiative, Measure J on the June 8, 2010, Ballot. Visit: www.CitizensAgainstParedon.org.

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CONTACT: Donna Jordan, Citizens C.A.P. co-chair; 805.684.0414 or [email protected]

Please click here for a PDF version of the press statement