Who’s regulating offshore oil drilling; the City Council and landlords; another look at a crash landing in the Hudson

One spill, many questions

Re “Oil drilling outpaces regulation,” May 9

How were regulators, and the oil industry for that matter, not concerned with a 3% to 5% chance of a worst-case scenario?

It seems like low odds, but let’s take a look at some other seemingly unlikely events: We were attacked on 9/11. Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. A massive earthquake struck the most populated area of Haiti. The list goes on.

Pumping oil is playing with fire; one low-odds occurrence can have massive repercussions. A highly profitable global industry like the oil business should be required to maintain a disaster response force that can contain a worst-case spill in a matter of days.

Seeing these egregious profiteers bumble around with Band-Aid fixes is pathetic and maddening.

Daniel Shafer
West Hollywood

The thrust of this story is that had government only regulated the oil industry more closely, the gulf blowout wouldn’t have happened. This reflects the prevailing wisdom that all-knowing government can provide a risk-free society.

One only has to look at the failures of banking regulation, the Transportation Security Administration and the Food and Drug Administration, among others, to reach a different conclusion.

Oil exploration is a hazardous enterprise. This is the first major blowout in 40 years. No one, least of all BP, wanted this to happen, and there is no evidence so far of reckless behavior on the company’s part. Accidents occur in hazardous endeavors.

Let’s stop this automatic reach for government solutions to all of our problems, lest we discover we’ve surrendered both our freedom and our prosperity to an ever-larger and more-intrusive governmental ruling class.

William Bradshaw
San Diego

The Times reports that over the last decade, “as [oil drilling] operations have expanded, federal watchdogs haven’t adjusted accordingly.”

Wasn’t that the whole point of the George W. Bush era? Decrease regulation to get government off the back of business and allow companies to regulate themselves?

Isn’t this the reason for the mining disaster in West Virginia? Isn’t this the same argument the big banks are making now in Congress in opposition to proposed safeguards?

The watchdogs couldn’t adjust because they work at the behest of big business.

Thomas D. Penfield
Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.

Re “Spill could take crippling economic toll,” May 7

It’s not enough to raise the corporate economic liability limit from $75million to $10 billion, as Congress is proposing. BP would fork over the cash to pay for damages and then immediately go back to drilling.

After this incident, why should we let BP return to this risky business? If it proved to have been negligent, I say revoke its corporate charter and shut down BP for good.

Permanently neutralizing a corporation is not done often nowadays, but why not? We do it all the time with human criminals, by locking them away for life. And since corporations are people under the law, why not give BP the same treatment that would be given to me or you?

Andrew Dunn
Santa Barbara

Dangerous path on Sudan

Re “Soft on Sudan?,” Editorial, May 6

As a grass-roots organizer on Darfur and Sudan issues in L.A., we have mobilized thousands of activists here to demand that President Obama change course on Sudan.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and United Nations Ambassador Susan E. Rice know what needs to be done, but they’ve been thwarted by the president’s cleaving to the idea that we can win over a wanted international war criminal, who just stole an election from his people, through carrots and not sticks.

The George W. Bush administration did talk tougher on Sudan, but it never acted. A new, tough international effort must be coordinated immediately or the loss of life in Sudan will be on all our hands.

Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug
Encino
The writer is executive director, Jewish World Watch.

What about L.A. landlords?

Re “L.A. rent hikes might be delayed,” May 6

It is amazing to me that the City Council’s Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee is so blind to what it takes to run a business in Los Angeles. They want to put a freeze on rent hikes, even as they raise DWP rates.

A 3% rent increase does not necessarily raise landlords’ incomes. Councilmember Richard Alarcon is sympathetic to struggling working-class people, but many buildings are owned by people who do not even break even anymore. Officials are just making it harder for anyone to make a profit. No wonder businesses are fleeing the city when they can. Too bad landlords cannot move their buildings out too.

Dafni Black
Culver City

Back-seat pilots and their reports

Re “Inspectors find flaws in Hudson River landing,” May 5

After a career in the Air Force, and having had an aircraft accident similar to pilot Chesley Sullenberger’s — except mine was in a fighter at night — I have a feeling for what was going on in the cockpit of U.S. Airways Flight 1549.

I have also had the experience of serving on accident investigation boards. Some of the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board reported in The Times are what one would expect from a committee working in a well-lit, air-conditioned room with no time pressure.

Lester L. Krause Jr.
Fallbrook, Calif.

Fighting about Okinawa

Re “Another battle of Okinawa,” Opinion, May 6

News flash for the military: World War II is over. There are no more German U-boats in the Atlantic; the Russians have gone home from East Germany; and the last Japanese soldier surrendered almost two-thirds of a century ago.

Still the Marines insist on keeping an air base in Okinawa.

Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan — the countries we should really be worrying about — lie 3,500 miles to the west of Japan. How many suicide bombers can Marine pilots pick off from Okinawa? Where are our priorities?

Bill Livingstone
Santa Barbara

Anyone who calls America an “empire” should look up that word. Empires don’t oust totalitarian regimes and allow repressed citizens to choose leaders via democratic elections.

Chalmers Johnson says the presence of U.S. soldiers in Okinawa created a “subculture of bars, prostitutes and racism.” He also accuses the U.S. of displacing indigenous peoples against their will and trashing the environment. His talking points reflect the hateful rants of an anti-American fringe left.

Pat Murphy
Pacific Palisades