Letters To The Editor

Aera Energy wants us to green-light its plan to radically ramp up oil operations in Cat Canyon. The company is jointly owned by Exxon and Shell. As you read this, Exxon is awaiting, probably in vain, a major court verdict in a suit that charges it has lied to the public for decades. Exxon knew […]

The national anniversary of women’s suffrage will be celebrated in August of 2020. Did you know that women in the state of California voted on state matters eight years earlier than they were able to do nationally?  California suffragists were successful in lobbying the Republican Party to include support for women’s suffrage in its 1911 […]

Lompoc is facing a severe budgetary problem, and as a result, vital services like police protection are severely curtailed. So far, there have been seven murders in Lompoc, perhaps somewhat due to a lack of policemen. So why does Lompoc charge new home builders so much less for connection fees for new houses than neighboring […]

How could you politicians put 40 million Californians in such peril as to deliberately shut off our power? There is absolutely no justification for that. We all stand to lose by the actions of our state governor. Our lives and property are at risk by these actions. A fire is not a disaster unless you […]

On Oct. 18, 2019, State Parks gave its first quarterly report to the California Coastal Commission on the Public Works Plan under which Pismo Beach State Park and Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (ODSVRA) will operate in the future. It was obvious to the commission that State Parks had not done its homework.  At […]

This matter concerns an attempt to foist on us oil leasing and hydraulic fracturing in 1.6 million acres of our federally protected public lands here on the Central Coast. Supervisor Gregg Hart’s resolution opposing further dangerous oil operations here aims to protect us all. We can hope that a measure of wisdom and courage will […]

Federal lands on the Central Coast will soon be up for lease to oil companies for dangerous drilling and extraction processes. As our counties strive to reduce the water, land, and air impacts of extreme oil drilling in county-controlled areas, the feds rush to push drilling on our federal lands. Federal agencies are greasing the […]

After an event such as the Climate Strike, we inevitably see critical letters asking, “How many people drove cars to this event?” or, “How many rode their bikes?” Good questions. Let’s look at this in a larger context. Oil corporations have spent vast amounts of money to convince us that we cannot live without their […]

What a sweetheart deal. A developer is getting a taxpayer guaranteed loan of $300,000 per unit to “refurbish” apartments and to bridge a rent gap for low-income residents subsidized by the taxpayers for 50 years, plus a property tax exemption (“Lompoc housing update,” Sept. 26). Ironically, some friends recently did a budget on a market-rate […]

There are many good reasons to impeach President Donald Trump, but the one I find most compelling that’s never mentioned is his commitment to obstruct any progress that would help fight the inevitable, currently occurring, climate change crisis. He and his appointees, many of them former fossil fuel industry lobbyists, have done their best to […]

The commentary, “I am undocumented” (Sept. 5), seems like a politically written hit piece. If factual, I am sympathetic. But I also grew up with illegal immigrants, hired illegal immigrants, and worked with them. Most went to the effort to be legalized and assimilate over the years.  The need to improve our immigration laws and […]

What a shame. Adelita (“I am undocumented,“ Sept. 5) has been living in this country 33 years and could never figure out how to apply for citizenship. For at least 20 of those years, she was legally an adult. During those years, politicians in Washington, D.C., kicked the illegal immigrant crisis back and forth but […]