The ‘Lungs of the Planet’ Are Imperiled : Environment: Bush’s desire to open new oil drilling off Southern California is dangerous. Alternative energy sources are available and should be tapped.

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we were seduced by oil. The thick, black substance powered our inventions. It made our economy grow. We had no idea that oil was an environmental poison that would one day pollute our air and threaten to spoil our oceans.

In the 1920s, we learned that certain properties of oil are uncontrollable: No amount of preparation and care can prevent a well blowout. California’s Supreme Court enshrined that fact by declaring oil drilling on land and on sea an ultra-hazardous activity.

In the 1950s, we began to see and feel the effects of an oil-based economy. Smog began to get our lungs’ attention. At the end of the 1960s, we were shocked and saddened by the waves of dead marine life caused by the Santa Barbara oil spill. Nevertheless, the politics of oil moved out to sea in the 1980s: President Ronald Reagan, for the first time in history, opened the entire coastline of America to the oil industry.

The oceans are the lungs of the planet, the main source of our oxygen. They play a crucial role in shaping our climate. It is in the coastal zones where the life force of the ocean germinates and breeds. Spilling oil, a toxin, into them is analogous to injecting poison into a person’s veins.

There is no need to put our coastal resources at risk. There are alternatives that are technologically feasible and readily available. All that’s needed is political will.

But President Bush remains wedded to an offshore oil policy that envisions oil fields in Southern California waters. The announcement is expected shortly. His perseverance in promoting a 19th-Century energy source is dangerous and environmentally reckless.

At the current rate of consumption, the world’s oil supplies will be exhausted in about 100 years. Why cling to this dwindling energy source that poisons our habitat? California’s and the country’s continuing energy need does not mean that offshore oil development is necessary.

The 21st Century will be fueled by conservation and by clean, renewable fuels. The only question is whether we will sentence our grandchildren to a frantic, polluted world that is desperately trying to develop a renewable-fuels/conservation economy or begin preparing now to shift away from fossil fuels.

Today, the city and county of Los Angeles use methanol to power their fleets of cars. Southern California Edison uses electricity to keep its vans going. The Southern California Gas Co. runs trucks on compressed natural gas. We can--and should--develop vehicles that run on ethanol (made from corn). The sun, after all, could supply much of the world’s energy.

We also have the technology to conserve billions of barrels of oil as we move to a renewable-fuels economy. We can make automobiles that are capable of getting 107 miles per gallon; many cars sold today get 50 m.p.g. Yet President Bush, as did his predecessor, continues to embrace the 1985 fleet standard of 27.5 m.p.g.

If we raised that fleet average to 40 m.p.g. by the year 2000, we could save four times the amount of oil that is estimated to be off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. If the nation’s households installed storm windows and insulation during the next decade, we could save twice the oil offshore.

The battle to drill for oil in the ocean must end, for a healthy, living ocean is essential to the planet’s well-being. If an oil field is developed off Southern California, the probability of a major oil spill occurring in the area is 94%. It is certain, too, that we would have many more oil tankers in Southern California’s waters, because the the Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission and the affected municipalities are not going to approve pipelines to move the oil

Californians do not want to go to the beach and see an oil field. What we do want is an energy policy that protects our coastal resources. We can have both energy and an unpolluted environment. It is time for the government and the oil industry to join with the environmental community in developing a renewable-fuels/conservation energy policy that guarantees both the integrity of the ocean and the well-being of the Earth’s environment.