Oil Drilling: Props. O and P

I was very surprised by your editorial supporting Proposition P. You argue that since Occidental has already gotten permission from the city and has spent a lot of time and money on the project, it should automatically be allowed to drill even if--as you admit--it would be wiser not to put oil wells near our precious beaches.

I don’t really care what kinds of things Occidental has done to get to this point. The fact is, our state Constitution is carefully designed to see that the public interest is protected. A corporation with huge amounts of profits at stake may not like it if voters decide to change their minds. There are a lot of things that we used to allow before we knew better. For example, we no longer allow chemical companies to dump toxic wastes or industries to spew smoky poisons into our air. We know better now.

When a policy adopted by the government doesn’t make sense, citizens must take over the process and protect ourselves.

KATHY LEWIS

Encino