Laguna Beach : Foes of Ocean Drilling Say Petitions Growing

Organizers of a petition drive to block a federal plan to allow oil drilling off the Orange County coast reported Friday that the month-old effort has yielded nearly 45,000 signatures, surpassing their most optimistic expectations.

The petition, circulated by Save-Our-Shores, a Laguna Beach group formed after the plan to permit drilling in six tracts off Newport Beach and Laguna Beach was announced, will be presented to Interior Secretary Donald Hodel when he visits Orange County today.

“I was impressed when we hit 20,000, and it seemed like I just turned around and we hit 30,000,” said Laguna Beach City Clerk Verna Rollinger, who has been tallying the signatures collected at shopping malls, beaches and on street corners. “By the end of (this) week, we’ll have about 40,000 signatures. It’s incredible.”

Karen Dennis, a spokeswoman for Save-Our-Shores, said tentative plans for presenting the petition call for the signatures to be mounted on a 6-by-8-foot sheet of plywood, painted black and blue to symbolize “that oil and water don’t mix.”

In addition to Laguna Beach, Dennis said, copies of the petition have been circulated in most other Orange County cities, including Newport Beach, Fullerton and Brea. Out-of-town and foreign visitors to the beach area, including Germans and Canadians, also have signed, she added.

Because the petition doesn’t involve a recall drive against a local politician or a ballot initiative, anyone who wants to sign it may do so, Rollinger said. “This is an advisory petition and we decided that anybody who likes the Pacific Ocean is qualified to sign,” she added.

Although Hodel can elect to ignore the petition, Dennis thinks the sheer number of local residents who have recorded their opposition to the drilling plan may help to change his mind.

“Orange County is a heavily Republican area, but everybody’s outraged,” she said. “Maybe he’ll just delete the six tracts altogether because we’re so noisy.”