Environmentalists won a huge victory yesterday when Hermosa Beach voters – 79 percent of them – heavily rejected an oil company’s bid to tap almost three dozen at the intersection of Valley Drive and Sixth Street.
Although critics acknowledged that E&B Natural Resources Management Corp. staged a worthy campaign to install 34 oil and gas wells, popular support never gelled.
All five Hermosa Beach City Council members stood against it.
As far as many residents were concerned, the first city-run election in 16 years merely was the playing out of form.
“We are really stoked,” said Alix Smith, president of Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay.
“The threat of oil drilling in California’s most densely-populated coastal community has lifted.
“(Yesterday) we saw Hermosans defending their turf from corporate greed.
“This historic ban will protect Santa Monica Bay from the potential devastation of oil spills, increased air pollution and the unchecked industrialization of our coast.”
Ms. Hobbs pledged that Heal the Bay, whom she called “the region’s most trusted water watchdog, will continue to fight corporate interests targeting the Bay for further industrial uses and oil exploration.”
