Posted by Tina
Strapped for cash and going under
The Derrick Next Door: Suburb Explores a Crude Solution to Its Budget Woes, by Nicholas Casey – WSJ
**WHITTIER, Calif. — The five biggest car dealerships here went belly up in the space of a year. The Mervyns department store was liquidated. And the city is so strapped for cash it has pulled the plug on its Fourth of July fireworks. *** But now this Los Angeles suburb thinks it has found the answer to its troubles: It’s going to drill, baby, drill. *** A Texas A&M University-trained geologist has come here to dig test oil wells, an environmental review has been launched and city officials are tallying up how much money could be in it for Whittier. *** “The numbers I’ve been shown, wow, they’re unbelievable,” says Greg Nordbak, Whittier’s mayor pro tem. “If this could come in, this could certainly endow Whittier’s future for the next 100 years,” he says. ** (bold is mine)