On May 29, in the Russian Arctic there was a 21,000-ton oil spill. If we want to ensure that environmental disasters like this and like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska do not happen again, we need to stop drilling for oil in the Arctic.
However, President Trump wants the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be open to oil drilling. He also wants to open our east and west coasts to offshore oil drilling, which could lead to another disaster like the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
At a time when climate scientists are warning that we need to phase out the use of fossil fuels, the Trump administration has leased 5 million acres of land and water for fossil fuel companies to frack, mine and drill. Also, Andrew Wheeler, a former fossil fuel lobbyist who now heads the EPA, wants to limit states’ and tribes’ ability to block pipelines and other energy projects.
If we conserve the oil we have, there would be less need to drill for more oil, but Trump wants automobile fuel efficiency standards to be relaxed and he has tried to block the state of California from legislating its own fuel efficiency standards.
This country needs to end its addition to oil and stop drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas.
Russell Patterson, West Valley City