Offshore Drilling

* President Clinton’s opposition to lifting the oil drilling ban off our already scarred coast is right on target.

However, with money speaking louder than ever, we must all do our part in order to prevent further damage to our coastal environment. If Shell Oil ditched its plan to sink a decrepit oil platform to the Atlantic floor due to its fear of a consumer boycott and opposition by environmentalists, we can employ the same tactics in California by making it clear to any company wanting to put a drilling rig off our coast that we will boycott all of its products. Since there is no sign of any imminent oil shortage, I fail to see why our politicians are in such a hurry to lift this ban. Only in a national energy emergency should we even consider permanently sacrificing the aesthetics and natural habitat of our coastal water to an oil company.

JOHN T. CHIU

Corona del Mar