OSPIRG working

against Norton
It was fitting that the front page of the Emerald yesterday coupled an article about OSPIRG’s return to the ASUO ballot (“OSPIRG goes back to ASUO ballot,” ODE, Jan. 31) and the confirmation of Interior Secretary Gale Norton (“Senate confirms nominations of Whitman, Norton,” ODE, Jan. 31).
Norton has a history of developing pristine wilderness and advocating for polluters as they scar our land and pollute our waterways. OSPIRG has a 30-year history of fighting for forest protection and cleaning up Oregon’s polluted waterways.
Norton’s confirmation is now the cornerstone of the Bush/Cheney plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge. OSPIRG is working to protect the area, fighting to save the porcupine caribou, hundreds of species of birds, and saving one of the last unspoiled places on Alaska’s ecologically diverse northern coast. All of this drilling would take over 10 years to get oil to the states, and when it finally did, it would only produce about 6 months worth of oil.
Now more than ever, it’s important that we have public interest groups like OSPIRG working to protect our environment from greedy hands of the new administration and from the oil companies, like BP, that have been chomping to get this beautiful area for years.

Michelle Ternus

sophomore

psychology
 

Oil spoils nature
I am writing to discuss the recent oil spill in the Galapagos Islands, in which a tanker ran aground and spilled more than 170,000 gallons of oil into a national park. This is a reminder of the danger that oil poses to the natural world.
Unfortunately, clean-up crews say that it will be impossible to remove much of the oil that has spilled into the ocean and that threatens nearby islands. I hope that in the future we will learn from this disaster to better protect our most important natural areas. For example, right now BP is pushing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
The Arctic Refuge is one of the last unspoiled areas left in the United States. It is also one of the most ecologically important protected areas. It is a unique and pristine wilderness area where many species, including caribou and polar bears, make their home. I urge BP to look at the mess that oil has made of the Galapagos Islands and to cancel their plans to drill in the Refuge.

Michelle Swank

freshman

undeclared