Letters to the Editor: End all oil drilling. Cap existing wells. Move to green energy — now

To the editor: We have yet another oil spill. Will we just continue to do nothing about offshore drilling and the impacts to marine animals, their habitats and our environment?

We need to decommission offshore drilling and rapidly wean Americans off fossil fuels. We are in a climate crisis and need to do everything we can to implement green energy, including demanding that the California Public Utilities Commission promote solar, not the utilities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom must stand up for Californians and stop issuing new permits, cap existing oil wells and demand that Washington stop offshore drilling. Not a single other marine animal or habitat should be harmed by the oil industry.

We have the power to end this devastating cycle. End of story.

Cheryl Auger, Pasadena

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To the editor: As a former president of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and resident of Huntington Beach, I am shocked at the devastation to brown pelicans, dolphins, snowy plovers, seals, fish and other wildlife. I am also struck by the irony of this oil spill.

The old rig called Elly is in federal waters, managed by the U.S. Interior Department, and the ruptured underwater pipeline runs 17 miles from the oil platform to the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles County.

All of this is outside the jurisdiction of our local community, but we, like the wildlife, are left with the devastating results.

Paul Arms, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: I recall a few years ago, at the height (or depth) of Orange County Trumpism, seeing a huge banner draped across a Corona del Mar beachside mansion urging, “Drill, baby, drill!”

I wonder now if that homeowner, witnessing the oil slick spreading across the once pristine shore and surf outside his or her window, would still happily hoist that sign, dismissing this latest tragedy for California wildlife as a mere anomaly or no tragedy at all.

Teddi Chichester, South Pasadena

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To the editor: I am a sailor, so I checked all my navigation charts of the oil spill area searching for pipeline location information that would be useful to advise where anchoring would be hazardous.

Finding little of use, I searched for examples online and also found nothing that would caution a boat not to anchor along the pipeline location indicated in The Times. I found no evidence that visiting foreign vessels have better information.

Anchor damage is advanced as one possible cause of the oil leak, so the obvious question is, “What information is available for visiting large ships about where not to deploy anchors?” If the pipelines are not buried deep enough (anchors develop their holding power by burying in the sea bottom), what’s to prevent other leaks like the one presently fouling our beautiful shoreline?

Tim Tunks, Santa Monica