[dalereed]

"drilling for oil relieves the pressure and you actually have LESS oil pollution because of that."

Absolutely true!

In the 40s and earlier you couldn't go on the beach from Santa Barbara to Mexico without getting covered with tar.

I can't understand why the enviro whackos are so against off shore oil drilling, it reduces polution instead of increasing it. There used to be a spot on the horseshoe kelp 6 miles off of Los Angeles that there was a constant flow of natural oil boiling to the surface, some balls as big a basketballs, that produced an oil slick as far as Mexico and after they drilled the oil island in Long Beach and Seal Beach it reduced the flow to a trickle.

The whackos should be delighted but instead they want the islands torn down and the rigs removed.

[dalereed]

Golita, just north of Santa Barbara and the location of "Slough U" (UCSB) is where the Spanish used to beach their ships and tar the bottoms there was such an abundance of tar on the beach.

[Syncro]

Yes and even in the fifties walking on the beach in Oceanside would cover your feet with tar from leaking oil.

There was a thread some weeks ago tht Carry_Oakie and myself and some others were discussing this..and he has an excellent book on the enviroment and how to properly deal with it.

Hopefully he will see the ping and chime in with his expertize...

[daviddennis]

The enviros remember the infamous Santa Barbara oil spill of some years back (was it 1972? Don't remember), which gave them enormous credibility. To say that offshore drilling can help the environment would destroy their credibility utterly.

As you probably know, you can blame anything on oil companies and make it stick -- even natural seepage!

And yes, I agree - when I lived in Santa Barbara and had a peek of ocean view, the twinkling lights of the oil rigs were genuinely - no lie! - beautiful at night.

D