Not a Drill

It was a case of oil’s well that ends well when SOS California, the acronym for Stop Oil Seeps, celebrated the 12th year of its founding with a socially gridlocked bash at the University Club.

Co-founder Lad Handelman, who describes himself as an “environmentalist” and has spent 16 years of his life supporting marine mammal and other resource protection, says that oil and tar on local beaches is not from the offshore oil platforms that dot the horizon, but from natural seepage in the ocean, which has equaled some two million barrels in the last 39 years.

Political candidate and News-Press columnist Andy Caldwell says our Eden by the Beach has the second most prolific oil seeps in the world off the Central Coast. “Drilling relieves the pressure from these natural gas seeps,” he concluded.

Among the wave of supporters turning out were Don Barthelmess, George Burtness, Jack Byers, Greg Gorga, Dana Hansen, Steve and Patti Putnam, Jim Nelson, Bob and Susanne Evans, and Dale Francisco.