Pro-Drilling Group’s Ads Financed by Occidental

A citizens committee formed to promote Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s plans to drill for oil beneath the Pacific Palisades has been funneling company money into newspaper advertising aimed at the city’s black and Latino communities, a financial disclosure statement shows.

The pro-drilling group, which calls itself the Los Angeles Public and Coastal Protection Committee, collected $35,000 between Dec. 17 and Dec. 31--all of it from Occidental. More than $28,200 was spent on advertising, mostly in ethnic newspapers.

Quick Response

The disclosures drew a quick response from drilling opponents, who said it was evidence that the other side was trying to promote the Palisades oil issue as a battle between “haves” who want to halt drilling near the beach and “have-nots” who would, theoretically, benefit from the city’s oil revenues.

“This is a gross attempt to polarize the community and make this a divisive matter between people who want to preserve beaches and poor people. And that’s reprehensible,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, co-sponsor of an initiative that, if successful, would repeal Occidental’s permits and ban drilling within 1,000 yards of the mean high-tide line.

Braude said “poor people have just as much interest in the beach, maybe more.”

‘Narrow, Selfish Interests’

But an attorney for the pro-drilling committee, Mickey Kantor, said that it was the “narrow, selfish interests” of the drilling foes that are “Balkanizing Los Angeles.”

“The only polarization going on is on their part by refusing to share their resources with all of Los Angeles,” Kantor said. “We are for people coming together and willing to share the burden. . . . My question is, why is their neighborhood any different from any other?”

The disclosure statement showed that the committee spent about $13,000 in advertising in black community newspapers, with $9,015 going to the Wave, $2,205 to the Sentinel, and $1,882 to the Watts Star Review. About $14,000 was spent in Spanish-language publications, with $7,592 to La Guia, $4,140 to La Opinion and $2,622 to Noticias del Mundo. Another $750 went to a tabloid called On the Scene, which circulates to a general readership in Hollywood, South-Central Los Angeles and Venice.

About $2,200 was spent on office expenses, leaving a balance of $4,612 in the committee’s campaign fund.

Asked whether the committee’s advertising would continue to target minorities, Kantor said: “It’s a little early. You begin by testing your ideas, getting a little reaction to your potential support.”

The advertising rhetoric itself is relatively tame. Under the heading “Building for Tomorrow,” the ad explains that the city already has 17 scattered drilling sites.

Kantor said it also explains how “an environmentally sensitive, inland energy development program”--the drilling site is across Pacific Coast Highway from Will Rogers State Beach--”would create money for police and community services.”

The ad gives a toll-free number for people interested in obtaining more information. “We’re trying to build a base of support in response to the initiative,” Kantor said.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, co-sponsor of the anti-drilling initiative, predicted that Occidental will also provide the vast majority of funding for the committee in the future.

“Obviously, this committee is a front for Occidental--nothing more, nothing less,” Yaroslavsky said. “They are trying to buy opposition to our initiative.” Meanwhile, Occidental, facing the potential November vote, is trying to accelerate final permits for its approved exploratory well through the backlogged city bureaucracy. But on Tuesday, the oil company was frustrated twice in hearings before city commissions.

The city’s Board of Zoning Appeals refused by a 5-0 vote an attempt by Occidental to secure an early hearing concerning approval for a plan to mask the exploratory well behind a Spanish bell tower facade. Board members said Occidental would have to wait its turn, saying the company provided no compelling reason to expedite the schedule.

In another hearing, before the city’s Building and Safety Commission, Occidental sought a waiver for permits to place two trailers on the drill site as “security offices.” However, the company asked for and received a 60-day continuance after being told that their request was “premature.”