It’s not Hermosa’s oil
Daily Breeze front page, December 4, 1957. Easy Reader archives, scrapbook by George Schmeltzer Twenty years ago the issue of oil drilling in Hermosa Beach was put to bed by a vote of the people, or so we thought. Now, it’s back with a vengeance and the residents of this “best little beach city” must do battle once again with a very well-funded and determined oil company. When I heard about the settlement agreement between E&B and the city my first thought was to weigh its possible financial benefits against the known risks and blight of oil drilling. After several meetings with E&B’s president, I learned that calculating oil revenues is much, much more difficult than I had supposed. “Where’s the money?” is simple to ask. The answer is anything but. The promise of “several hundreds of millions” much trumpeted in recent E&B ads and letters to the editor is pure speculation. In a settlement agreement some characterize as “a $30 million dollar loan with the health, safety, and property values of Hermosa’s residents used as collateral,” the City Council decided to give, without bid or review, to a small, independent oil drilling company, the exclusive right to stuff 35 wells…
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