Letters To The Editor

Karen Garcia wrote an excellent article on the personal heartbreak that is the result of immigration policies and enforcement that has been given the wink and nod for more than 40 years (“After deportation,” April 25). Congress needs to do something about this now. Actually it should have been done yesterday. President Trump has offered […]

When will the Central Coast really get going on protecting our climate? Some folks are doing everything they can. Most of us, though, are either picking at climate solutions or pretty much ignoring this catastrophic and looming problem. We are still burning fossil fuel like it is going out of style. With our mega pickups […]

I’d like to say a word about torture. We hear a lot about it these days; it’s all over the news. We recoil at the thought of torture. And yet, every single, solitary day, we are all being tortured. Now, you may wonder, “How is that?” And that’s probably just because you haven’t yet realized […]

Remember, as a child, how we delighted when we saw dandelions in the lawn? Possibly our parents gave us an allowance if we pulled them with a tool. Remember how weeds would pop up in the sidewalk and we’d use a knife to clear them from the cracks? It took time. We had to bend […]

To quote Forest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.” The Santa Maria City Manager’s Office and the transportation department decided to change the Breeze bus leaving the Transit Center at 6:20 a.m. to now leave at 6:10 a.m. Why? The Colt bus in Lompoc changed schedules in November 2018. It used to stop at the […]

A recent letter in the Santa Maria Times touted the wonderful history and benefits of oil development in the Cat Canyon area. The writer criticized the “few” opponents of the proposed extreme-extraction projects in the canyon, which will triple the number of producing wells there. He also decries the “micromanagement” of the oil industry by […]

Increased seismic activity is only one of many inevitable potential dangers from the expansion of oil drilling in the Santa Maria Valley. ERG, Aera, and PetroRock all intend to use cyclic steam injection to pull the heavy, thick crude from the ground, which requires the re-injection of wastewater. Wastewater injections are considered to be responsible […]

After reading the final environmental impact report and the staff recommendation regarding the ERG application for expanded oil development in Cat Canyon, I spoke with Mr. Errin Briggs, the energy specialist in the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department. Our conversation was enlightening and troubling. First of all, the consultant that provided the analysis […]

Crude oil tankers described as bombs (“Oil tankers are bombs on wheels!” March 28): I’ll let someone else point out the flammability difference between crude oil and gasoline, because my head already hurts from trying to comprehend how someone doesn’t notice how gasoline gets to gas stations. People drive cars and trucks, using up to […]

So who are the liars? Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Adam Schiff, all California’s finest, Chuck Schumer, one of New York’s greats, all the mainstream media mouths or is it Robert Mueller? Each of these, except Mueller, stood directly in front of TV cameras and stated they had evidence that President Donald Trump had colluded with […]

“In Carbon Evolution: The county argues about oil development in Cat Canyon” (March 21), ERG’s spokesperson Nathan Eady is quoted as saying that California’s Air Resources Board (CARB), showed that Cat Canyon had an average carbon intensity of 4.08 in 2017. These statistics were presented at the March 13 Santa Barbara County Planning Commission hearing […]

On Dec. 15, 2017, a gasoline tanker flipped on Highway 101 near Goleta, causing a major spill and shutting down the highway as hundreds of local residents were evacuating due to the Thomas Fire. The 101 was closed while hazardous materials crews worked to clean up the 5,000-plus gallon spill. The road, disintegrated by corrosive […]