As expected, our governor, Rep. Capps, Sen. Feinstein and, of course, the Times editorial staff came out against McCain's call for coastal drilling.

Laughably, Feinstein cites the 1969 Santa Barbara spill, suggesting it could happen again. She completely ignores 40 years of technological advances and Hurricane Katrina, where many rigs were damaged with negligible spillage.

As to the argument of no immediate benefits, a commitment to drill should ease the price, as speculators back down. And how about windfall profits to the state's coffers? Gov. Schwarzenegger seems oblivious to this potentially huge revenue stream.

There is, however, another reason to drill. Would you believe to help the environment?

SOS California is a Santa Barbara-based grass-roots movement that seeks to heighten public awareness about the detrimental effects of gas and oil seepage, a major problem along the Southern California coast. In conjunction with various UCSB studies, this organization has identified seepage as the single biggest air-quality contaminant in that region, about 6,100 tons a year vs. 4,000 tons due to cars. To put this in another perspective, every year, 86,000 barrels of oil and gas are released to the surface - an amount equal to the 1969 oil spill.

The answer is to relieve pressure that forces seepage to the surface by extracting the oil. Check it out at soscalifornia.org, and see for yourself.

It will be interesting to see how Capps and her eco-extremist allies spin this one going forward.

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R.T. O'Shea

Nipomo

June 30, 2008