Everyone’s Back Yard
Several supporters of offshore oil drilling have accused their opposition of selfishly whining, “Not in my back yard.” I agree that there is some element of hypocrisy in claiming environmental concern while living the Southern California life style.
Yet the Exxon oil spill in Alaska has demonstrated to the whole country that Prince William Sound is in fact everybody’s back yard. Some of us may not have even heard of Prince William Sound before March, but the price we are now paying for gasoline proves how close we are to that oil spill.
Locally, though, there is an impact even greater than the price of gasoline. Every night we are shown on television what it would be like to have oil slicks 2 feet thick on our beaches. In our harbors. In the lagoons. In our front yards.
I hope everybody in San Diego County car-pools to the workshop scheduled for 1 to 7 p.m. Monday at Carlsbad’s Public Safety Center. Comments from the public have been invited.
RUSSELL D. SPENCER
Vista
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