Editor,
I was happy to hear the Surfrider Foundation recently hosted a meeting on the perils of offshore oil drilling along Laguna’s coastline. Having served as the coordinator of the No on Offshore Oil Drilling coalition of cities and the county in 1985, I have a deep appreciation for the task Surfrider and others might be facing now.
Our campaign started with the cities of San Clemente, Laguna, Newport and Huntington Beach joining forces with the Orange County Board of Supervisors in total opposition to the Reagan administration’s plan to open up the coastline to massive drilling. By the time Donald Hodel, the secretary of the Interior, arrived in Newport Beach for a public hearing, more than 20 Republican mayors and all five GOP supervisors publicly denounced the plan.
I vividly remember Harriett Wieder, then chair of the County Board of Supervisors, dumping 14,000 postcards in front of the secretary. When she told him those cards were signed by her Huntington Beach constituents, he wasn’t simply surprised, he was shocked. My guess is if Bob Gentry, Laguna’s representative to the coalition, had thought of the idea, he probably would have done the same thing.
In order to shut down the Trump administration’s plan to drill off our coast, it is going to take more than a coalition of electeds this time around. Surfrider and others are going to need top business leaders in the county to work their back channels and communicate directly with the White House. That’s what happened more than 30 years ago. I won’t name names, but I will tell you this: some of the most successful corporate titans, from Anaheim to Newport, either wrote or called President Reagan and expressed, in no uncertain terms, their opposition to his oil drilling plan.
Offshore oil drilling not only poses an immediate risk to sea life in Laguna, it also can cause long-term, serious economic trouble for the county. Lest anyone forget, if OC beaches are closed due to an oil spill, hundreds of thousands of tourists, spending billions of dollars locally, will find another place to visit for the day or vacation for a week. As far as we were concerned in 1985, that simply wasn’t an ecological or financial risk anyone was willing to take. My hope is that same reaction still is true today.
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach
Same old tiresome blather about offshore drilling that has been promoted since Santa Barbara in 1968. Maybe a few new original observations would be handy or, better still, do as you preach Denny and stay off all petroleum derived products for, say two days. I doubt you would last one day. Every war had blood and oil in it last century and nothing has changed this century. Oil is still the lifeblood of our civilization and has an impeccable reputation over the past 40 years as to environmental aspects, like any industry, it has accidents, but to stop driving cars because there are sometimes car wrecks is silly. So is your selfish promotion of a non-oil dotted coast as that is saying Texas, you can do all the drilling and we will continue to use our share, about 1/5th of all oil refined in the USA daily, and never get our little grubby hands soiled if there is some accident. Pretty damn shallow, considering oil is a hydrocarbon, or natures ultimate renewable – it is a paleo solar battery that its heat btu energy waits millions years to be released one day. Nope, CA is infested with self serving nimby’s that want their lifestyles but others to pay for it. Not good examples for our kids or for the country because folks like you make us all look like a bunch of shallow hypocrites.
Freidenrich never pens a word without being as far extremist left-wing as he possibly can. You are spot on, Stephen Harris. Friedenrich and all the other pretend *environmentalists* are hypocrites of the highest order, just like the preening, overpaid Hollywood Ignorati. You little people, do without. Walk or ride your bikes. ::: sniff :::: We big shots will take limousines to our private jets, or our yachts and festivities.
The concerns for offshore drilling that have been voiced in our country should be heard, but it is also important to educate everyone about the importance of oil and petroleum-based products and how they factor into the everyday lives of everyone alive today, unless they are living off the grid.
[…] later, local resident and former political fundraising consultant Denny Freidenrich coordinated the “No on Offshore Oil Drilling” coalition, gathering support from county mayors and supervisors, all Republicans, to oppose the […]