First in a series

The City Council has indicated that the emotionally awaited draft environmental impact report for the city’s corner of the Inglewood Oil Field may be ready by the end of next week.

What can/should an effective community activist such as Tom Camarella be doing?

First, he noted, Sentinel Peak Resources, operator of the field, “has said they are not going to contest the draft environmental impact report. Their announcement made it sound as if they are getting ready to sue us.

“That is dispiriting our Council,” Mr. Camarella said. “But what the Council has to understand is that anyone can sue anything for any reason.”

He said the City Council should not allow its actions to be influenced by a perceived threatened lawsuit from a faceless corporate foe.

“You can’t restrict yourself by thinking ‘maybe they won’t sue us if I do this.’

“And guess what?” said Mr. Camarella.

“No matter what is done, they are going to sue us.

“What Sentinel Peak Resources wants to do is make money.

“They do not care about the people,” the activist said. “They have a set of investors who want to make money.

“If there is too much trouble – even if there is a little bit of trouble – they are going to use the courts, whatever they can try.”

(To be continued)