Show Your Opposition to new Offshore Drilling off US Coastlines

Posted by: Allison Friedman // Rate It Green Admin

Join with EarthJustice and others to keep our oceans and coastal communities clear of new offshore drilling:

To sign on and send a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: http://bit.ly/2uoPJR1

"The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill dumped 3 million gallons of crude oil off the California coast. Twenty years later, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Alaska. And only seven years ago the Deepwater Horizon explosion caused 210 million gallons of crude oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

These oil spills took an enormous toll on nearby communities and marine life, many of which are still dealing with the damages.

But now the Trump administration is taking steps toward opening up public ocean waters in the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas drilling, thereby exposing more communities to even further damage and taking us in the wrong direction in combating climate change."

"...Just this past January, the Obama administration finalized a plan that kept the Arctic and Atlantic oceans safe from expanded offshore oil and gas drilling. But several weeks ago, the Trump administration announced it would abandon this plan and start the offshore leasing process all over again to open up these and other areas to oil drilling. This action doubles-down on President Trump’s earlier attempt to overturn Obama’s permanent ban against expanded drilling in the vast majority of the Arctic and important parts of the Atlantic oceans. Earthjustice and our partners are challenging that decision in court, and we will resist this new leasing plan every step of the way.

The risk of an oil spill is too great, as it could cause irreversible damage to our coastal communities and irreplaceable wildlife. You’ve got until August 17 to get on the record again saying no to new offshore drilling off our coastlines."

The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, putting tremendous strain on the Arctic’s diverse wildlife and people. Experts agree that an oil spill in the Arctic would be catastrophic and could not be contained in the remote, icy, and stormy seas.

Drilling off the Atlantic Coast could harm critical habitat for whales and sea turtles and threaten the region’s vibrant fishing and tourism industries.

For too long, the Gulf of Mexico has been treated as an energy sacrifice zone, with over 10,000 spills recorded this decade and some 27,000 leaky, abandoned wells. Nothing about this track record supports selling off even more of these waters to Big Oil.

Drilling in any of these areas would open fragile and priceless ecosystems to damage from pollution and spills, pose immeasurable risk to wildlife and communities, and accelerate global climate disruption."