Offshore Oil Moratorium
Your editorial regarding proposed drilling along the California coast (“Truce on Offshore Oil”) seems to regard what Secretary of the Interior Donald P. Hodel has in mind for the shores of California as generous and compromising. A 15-year moratorium for the sacrifice of the viewline of California’s most popular and accessible beaches is not a compromise when you consider that any offshore drilling is hazardous, an eyesore, polluting, expensive, embarrassing and a defacing of one of the proudest things California has to offer.
California, in particular Southern California, is known worldwide for its incredible surf. No beach should be sacrificed--especially Newport, Laguna Beach, Dana Point or any other reserve that displays the mystique that California has become. If there must be a compromise, let it be with the cities, such as Eureka, that desire and need offshore drilling for the enhancement of their economies. There are already 36,000 offshore sites in U.S. waters. Why take a dangerous gamble with the pristine beaches of Southern California when even with all the oil in the world available the United States couldn’t function for one year in an emergency state?
As has been said so many times, instead of pumping the world dry let’s find alternative energy sources. Let us not destroy everything God has created in the hopes of finding 20 more drops of crude.
No offshore drilling in Southern California. It isn’t worth it.
CARTER TUTILWER
Corona del Mar
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