Oil Spill Off Huntington Beach
Though I ordinarily respect The Times’ environmental coverage, I must object to the story headlined “Spill Unlikely to Rank as Major Ecological Disaster” (Part A, Feb. 14).
The Times apparently draws this conclusion by comparing the Huntington Beach oil spill with the nation’s worst ever, in Alaska last year.
By such worst-case comparisons, one would have to conclude that Chernobyl was not a major disaster compared to, say, Hiroshima, or that American homelessness is nothing compared to Saharan starvation. The unintended effect is to minimize a preventable disaster.
The proper standard of comparison should be between the inflated safety claims of industry and the sorry results on the beach.
ASSEMBLYMAN TOM HAYDEN
D-Santa Monica
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