Support for Oil Drilling

Claims of a newly formed “citizens committee” financed by Occidental Petroleum Corp. supporting that company’s proposed oil drilling project at Santa Monica Bay (Metro, Jan. 13) are ludicrous and totally unsupported by the facts.

The Occidental drilling project is opposed not just by local environmentalists and Pacific Palisades homeowners.

Scores of state and local environmental organizations and most of the elected officials from the Santa Monica Bay area also oppose it.

The reasons for such opposition are simple, clear and decisive:

First, the Occidental project is directly across from one of the most popular and widely-used beaches on Santa Monica Bay--Will Rogers State Beach.

Second, it is immediately adjacent to the Pacific Coast Highway, a major north-south coastal artery which is already threatened by natural slides in other sections.

Clearly, the drilling of 60 wells in this area represents a major environmental and safety hazard to Will Rogers State Beach and the highway and its traffic.

Third, the Occidental project almost certainly would create a “foot-in-the-door” for other oil drilling projects along the coast and in Santa Monica Bay by both the federal and state governments and by oil companies.

The threat from the federal government is very real. Both Democratic and Republican Administrations have repeatedly proposed drilling along the California coast, including the Santa Monica Bay area. Our elected officials in Washington, led by Sens. Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson and Rep. Mel Levine have succeeded in holding off those efforts, arguing that there has been no coastal or beach drilling permitted in the L.A. coastal area for many years. The Occidental project, which is coastal, not in Pacific Palisades proper, would remove that argument.

The Occidental “citizens committee” says that Los Angeles citizens should show “fairness and sharing” in allowing an oil project opposite Will Rogers State Beach. Is it “fairness and sharing” to provide an oil company with private profits for Armand Hammer and his shareholders while threatening a recreational resource that belongs to millions of Southern Californians?

DOROTHY GREEN

President

Heal the Bay

ELDEN HUGHES

Immediate Past Chairman

Sierra Club, Angeles Chapter

DON MAY

Friends of the Earth

JERRY MERAL

Executive Secretary

Planning and Conservation League

ROBERT H. SULNICK

President

No Oil, Inc.