Protecting Our Atlantic Legacy News

Statement of Anna Aurilio, Director of the Washington DC Office of Environment America

“Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted to fund the government through a continuing resolution that does not include the 27-year-old offshore drilling moratorium. The bill also lifts a one year moratorium on leasing public lands for oil shale development.

“Reversing nearly three decades of coastal protections will not solve our energy woes but could threaten our coasts with oil spills and toxic pollution. In ending the annual moratorium on their way out the door, the Bush administration and its Big Oil allies in Congress have given the industry access to almost 400 million acres of new ocean to drill in. It’s like handing the oil companies the land area of Texas, California, Florida, Colorado, and Maryland to drill in.

“Until there is a new administration the big winner is Big Oil. The big losers are our beaches and the American public. Our beaches are losing 27 years of environmental protections from offshore oil drilling and the American public will not see savings at the pump.

“Lifting the moratorium means that drilling could eventually occur as close as three miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts where oil and gas drilling is currently banned. That means three miles off Cape Cod, three miles off the Jersey beaches, the Chesapeake Bay, the Outer Banks, the Georgia Sea Islands, southern California beaches, Point Reyes and northern California’s special coast could see drilling. Numerous national seashores, wildlife refuges, marine sanctuaries, and state parks will be threatened by chronic pollution and catastrophic spills from wells. Famed fishing grounds like Georges Bank off Cape Cod, the Gulf of Maine, salmon and crab grounds off Oregon and Washington will all be opened for drilling. Industrialization of undeveloped coastal areas to support all this drilling will eventually follow.

“The administration’s own Energy Information Agency says that opening up all currently closed offshore areas will have no significant impact on the price of energy. There is too little oil under our oceans to make a difference in the price for oil set on the world’s market.

Lifting the one year moratorium on leasing Western public lands for oil shale development would threaten sensitive ecosystems, use scarce water resources and generate much more global warming pollution.

“America needs a bold new energy plan. Instead of opening every last corner of our country to oil drilling, we need to produce cars that go further on a gallon of gasoline, invest in mass transit and other alternatives to driving, and develop clean renewable energy.

“Environment America will work to ensure that the next administration and new Congress reduce our dependence on oil and restore protections for our coasts and public lands.”