By Nao Braverman
On April 23 three conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for their plans to expand oil drilling in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Los Padres Forest Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife claim that the administration’s decision violates the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act and the 1976 National Forest Management Act, as increased drilling would harm the endangered California condor and other wildlife and plants.
“The expansion of oil drilling in our local wild lands is fundamentally incompatible with forest recreation, clean air, and the protection of wild life,” said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres Forest Watch. “Unfortunately, this administration has ignored the concerns of our community. By filing this lawsuit we’re drawing the line and saying enough is enough.”
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4 comments:
We need to open up our minds to the possibilities of drilling for oil locally and get rid of the NIMBY attitude or we will be facing oil prices of $10 a gallon before we are able to come up with alternative fuel options that are feasible.
The price of gasoline is not going to be affected by even one cent if this location was opened to drilling. The biggest influence to it's price is the intentional lack of refining capacity by the oil companies.
They have lost allot of their profit on the barrow price years ago, so they make it up on the refine side by keeping stocks intentionally low. Any little mishap at a refinery is an excuse to raise prices. Weather, tough talk out of Washington, hurricanes, any instability anywhere is an excuse to stick it to us.
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It took years to rebuild the Condor's numbers to the point where they could bring them back to the sanctuary. The death of one is incalculable, the set back would be years in effect. One 600 hundred gallon leak, spill, could be disastrous. The extraction of oil is going to have a definite negative impact on the Condor. The oil is not that important.
Contrary to conventional thought, there is plenty of oil out there in proven reserves to last years. That doesn't count the fields yet to be found in China and parts of the old Soviet Union. This proposed field has nothing to do with lowering the price of gas, but has everything to do with making a buck, for a few, at a high risk, that is not worth the bother.
Dana Wilson
We actually need to open our minds to the possibilities of weaning ourself from oil completely. If the oil companies had spent as much time and money over the past 20 years making fuel cell technology an affordable & feasible reality as they have fighting everything that might possibly compete with gasoline, they would still be rich and in control of the fuel supply, nobody would be suggesting that we drill anywhere, and we would not be having many of the environmental problems that we're having today.
I would venture a guess that, judging by the fact that only about every 4th vehicle you pass on the road could be considered a decent gas-mileage car EVEN here in Ojai which if full of eco-freaks, about 80% of the population really does not care how high the gas prices go and they do not really care where the oil comes from so long as it is not from THEIR backyard. I agree that we need to look for alternate fuels, but until we all put our money where our eco-mouths are, Detroit will just keep on churning out the 8 mpg Escalades and Suburbans and Silverados and Tahoes that the eco-yuppies just love to flaunt while driving one-handed with their cell phones shoved in their ears.
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