Once upon a time the price of gas was below a dollar. In 1957 it was below 30 cents and that was the summer I worked in LA. I spent a lot of time at the beach and remember we carried a can of paint thinner and some old rags in the car to clean the tar off our feet so we won’t track it into the car. It wasn’t actually tar, we called it whale snot and it wasn’t that either, it was crude oil that had washed ashore from the oil rigs out near and over the horizon. Crude on the beach was just something we accepted back then and I for one didn’t give it much thought, it was just a bit harder to get off your feet than a few things I had stepped in back on the farm.

But times change and people started to realize that drilling for oil right off the coast wasn’t a good thing. A few major spills, Santa Barbara Channel comes to mind, and folks started to understand that the oil was killing birds and fish and clams and Dolphins and everything else in the water. Oil became more than a dirty foot problem. Eventually the oil rigs were shut down because the hidden costs were just too high to be acceptable. They spilled too much gook.

But times change, most of the people on the beaches of California today have never stepped in whale snot nor have they seen dead birds covered with oil and the price of gas is over 4 bucks. Now they want to resume drilling. Now these people have either forgotten what they learned long ago or they are just selling out.

It was wrong then and it is wrong now. I could be convinced that drilling has become safer now, I’m not though. Governor Jindel R- Louisiana didn’t help the other day when he stated that oil wells are so safe today and that no oil was spilt during Katrina. He’s off by what the EPA claims was 1400 major leaks. That sort of thing just convinces me that some people will say anything or do anything where money is involved. Some want to drill in Anwar and offshore because of money, not because drilling would be safer or good for the environment, just because of money. Some think it may lower gas prices and the ones wanting to drill are looking to profits. No matter which, it was wrong before and it is wrong now.

So here’s the old story;

A guy asks a woman if she would sleep with him for a million dollars.She said " Sure".

He then asked if she’d sleep with him for 10 dollars.

She replied haughtily "What do you take me for, a whore?"

He replied, "We established what you are with the first question, now we are haggling about price".

If you are one who has changed your mind or support a politician who has changed his mind about drilling in Anwar and offshore now but didn’t when gas was cheaper, we know what you are.

Sleep well tonight.

Pat Chandler