honestly, something like this will provide a whole lot of jobs to people who need it. i know it's not an oil well, but the process is the same and they hire the same people. the oil/gas industry is hurting pretty bad right now. drilling is barely sustainable in west texas and lots and lots of people are getting laid off. California is a also a large producer of oil, and a project like this will employ lots of laid off rig workers. I know it's a nuisance and it's ugly and there will be lots of heavy equipment around. Seriously, tons, but you're talking about peoples' livelihoods here. I'm not talking about this theoretically, either. I worked in a lab that tested cement blends to make sure they were suitable for sealing up wells and I got laid off almost a month ago. Fortunately for me, I have connections and I was already interviewing at another place and I got a job there. I have a stepdaughter and my wife was 8.5 months pregnant. It's very scary to see your livelihood go down like that. My dad and 2 of my brothers make good livings in the oil field, all without college. 2 of the guys I worked with just got out of prison and the oil field was the only place that would hire them. They're really trying to make something of their lives. One of them has tattoos all over his face and is pretty scary looking, but in reality he's a good guy and trying hard to get his life together. He's a supervisor now. The other one is kind of an idiot.... so we won't talk about him.
The EPA is so far down the oil/gas industry's throat they won't dare harm the environment. Trust me, I know, I work in the environmental department for a pipeline company now. Not that I mind, I care about the environment, but I also care about having a job. My job now pays nearly twice as much as what my degree is in, and I didn't go to school for philosophy. I have an MS is physiology. I was going to be a stem cell researcher.
The point is, the real reason people protest these things is because they're noisy and inconvenient and ugly. I won't lie - they are all of those things, but damaging to the environment? Only if something goes horribly wrong, and they spends millions to make sure it won't. I wish they could drill all the wells here in west texas where it's ugly and an drilling rig is actually an improvement, but they can't. It's a NIMBY issue, and it has to go in someone's backyard. Sorry it's yours, but that's life.