Kudos to Emerald

for anti-riot stance
I want to thank your staff at the Emerald for your hard-hitting editorial against rioting.
It is so difficult these days to find people in the media willing to take a firm stance on such controversial issues like mindless property destruction. I have no doubt that your strong anti-rioting opinion and associated argument have turned more than a few people around on the subject. Keep up the good work. I mean that!

Dustin Preuitt

graduate student


computer science

Allies are needed in

environmental battles
First, consider that oil drilling generates an enormous amount of pollution. Sludge from wells can contaminate the groundwater for decades. Air pollution generated from diesel emissions and methane (a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming) is also released into the environment during drilling.
Consider that companies seeking to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge have terrible environmental records. BP, ExxonMobil, Phillips and Chevron have been fined repeatedly for ignoring environmental laws and are responsible for hazardous waste dumps across the country.
Exxon was responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
In 1987, Chevron was assessed the largest fine in history — $1.2 million — for violating the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, but then in 1992 paid $8 million for 65 violations of the Clean Water Act.
In 1999, BP Amoco pleaded guilty to a federal felony conviction connected to illegal dumping of hazardous waste at its Endicott Oil Field near Prudhoe Bay. In a plea agreement, BP Amoco agreed to pay $22 million in criminal and civil penalties.
Finally, consider that groups like OSPIRG are devoted to environmental conservation in a nation that recently elected to its highest office two former oil-company executives with extremely strong ties to the industry.
In the struggle to save the last area along America’s Arctic that is closed to oil and gas drilling, we can use all the allies we can get. Support OSPIRG in next week’s elections.

Jen Munson

freshman


political science