The State - News from May 23, 1989

Fear over the possibility of an environmentally devastating oil spill was the major concern raised by those addressing a meeting in Carlsbad of a presidential task force reviewing proposed offshore oil lease sales. “They do not want another catastrophe like the one in Alaska,” said the panel’s executive director, Robert Kallman, referring to the disaster in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The workshop, in which the task force was hearing from 11 local elected officials during the afternoon and members of the public during the evening, was the first of six in California between now and July. President Bush formed the task force in February, saying proposed lease sales off the California and Florida coasts raised “troublesome questions.”