Editorial

Our editorial last week about saving for a rainy day must have had an impact on Gov. Jerry Brown when he proposed his $164.7 billion budget calling for “restraint” and warning against “exuberant overkill on our budget spending.’’

Frank Robertson, in his commentary "Hard to swallow" last week

Millions of gallons of oil have been spilled across the United States through ship, rail and road collisions, explosions, pipeline ruptures, storms, etc. Big oil disasters continue to reverberate through the environment and through our news cycles: the BP oil rig explosion that wreaked havoc in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the ship Cosco Busan that crashed into the Bay Bridge in 2007 dumping oil into San Francisco Bay, and the famous Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. While we watch the ongoing analysis, litigation and attempted cleanup from these high-profile events, there are measures we can all take to reduce a lesser but still very serious threat.