Letters to the Editor: The Coastal Commission has done the right things. Trump should back off
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
To the editor: As a 50-year resident of Santa Barbara, I know the oil issues from all sides (“Californians rallied to save the coast 50 years ago. Trump is spoiling the celebration,” July 11). I know it as the low-income mother of a 2-year-old I couldn’t take to the beach after the 1969 spill, as a lawyer representing environmental groups against oil tankering in the early 1990s and as a coastal commissioner — reporting at my last meeting in 2015 right after the Refugio oil spill.
The simple truth is that the Coastal Act allows oil development, if performed under strict environmental and safety controls that benefit the natural environment, our health and our tourism and fishing industries. Sable and President Trump want out of those controls. If that pipeline were safe (which it is not, 10 years after the spill), the oil would be on its merry way to refineries to pollute the air surrounding them.
The California Coastal Commission has done the right thing on both oil and desalination. Trump hates the commission for two reasons: less income for him and his “friends,” including Elon Musk and his loud rockets, and, even more likely, because residents fought him on raising his own flagpole over Rancho Palos Verdes. It is not the job of the people of California to compensate for Trump’s losses.
Jana Zimmer, Santa Barbara
This writer served on the California Coastal Commission from 2011-2015 and is the author of “Navigating the California Coastal Act.”
..
To the editor: Columnist Steve Lopez has it right. The Coastal Act has protected over-development of the shoreline. Although I have only lived in Southern California since 2010, I know it’s a delight to travel our coast and see the ocean, the mountains and the hills.
Having lived in Miami-Dade County in Florida from 1945 to 2010, I can attest that almost the entirety of the coast there, with minor exceptions, is developed with high-rise hotels, apartments and condominiums that block the view of the ocean from the A1A road. Furthermore, the development of these structures has resulted in the erosion of much of the beach, so much so that what at one time might have been referred to as “beach-front” is a misnomer. The ocean laps right up to the structures, so no beach. Be thankful for the Coastal Act.
Maurice M. Garcia, Newbury Park
