It’s Logical to Maintain Same Tanker Operation

* Without question, pipelining of crude oil from the Point Arguello oil fields to Los Angeles refineries would be the most efficient and ultimately the most cost-effective mode of transport.

However, in light of the continuous and negative local city government actions and other group pressures, it is highly doubtful that the state Public Utilities Commission will ever grant the permits essential to the project’s progression. And even if the PUC were to one day say “go,” predictably there would be one huge howl from the offices, agencies and sundry pressure groups opposed to a very worthy scheme, with the matter probably tied up in endless hearings and in the courts for years.

In my opinion, the logical solution, as an in-hand alternative to an apparent insoluble impasse, is to maintain the faultless coastal tanker operation that has been in this particular service for many years. This action could be accomplished by a simple extension of the existing temporary tanker transport permit (which I understand expired January, 1994) to a time linked to the anticipated productive life span of the Point Arguello oil fields.

BERNARD FRANKEL

Sherman Oaks