To: Interior Secretary Jewell and President Donald Trump
Prevent another disaster off our coasts
I urge you to remove the Atlantic and Arctic oceans from the 2017-2022 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program. Allowing oil drilling and development in the pristine and remote waters of America's Arctic Ocean, as well as along the Atlantic coastline, where economies are driven by coastal tourism, is risky and unnecessary.
Opening these areas to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling is simply incompatible with the future of America's coastlines and beaches. The Gulf of Mexico still has not recovered from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill. Oil continues to wash ashore on Gulf beaches, and commercial fisheries and marine populations have not rebounded. And even 25 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, fisheries and marine mammal populations in Prince William Sound have not recovered.
In addition, new offshore leasing and drilling is at odds with fighting climate disruption. President Obama and this administration have done more to combat climate change than any other in American history. The May 6, 2014, National Climate Assessment tells an unambiguous story: The planet is warming, and over the last half-century this warming has been driven predominantly by the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas. If we’re serious about averting an additional 2-degree temperature increase and avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, we have to keep dirty fuels like oil and gas in the ground. That should start with protecting fragile areas and areas that have not yet been opened to exploration.
In the Arctic, government scientists agree that more data is needed to fully understand the impacts of oil drilling in the region; that an oil spill could not be effectively cleaned up in the icy and stormy Arctic; and that the lack of infrastructure in the Arctic is a significant liability in the event of a large oil spill. An oil spill in the Arctic Ocean could devastate endangered bowhead whales, polar bears, seals, and other marine wildlife, and could severely affect Native subsistence communities that have thrived in this remote region for thousands of years.
In the Atlantic, leading ocean scientists are urging the president to prevent any seismic testing for oil and gas reserves in order to protect whales and other marine mammals. If allowed to proceed, this testing would harm the critically endangered right whale, disrupt fisheries, and open the door for risky drilling and attendant pollution along the East Coast.
The president's work fighting climate disruption must extend to include protecting our coasts and beaches from drilling. Please step back and reassess whether to open the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to oil drilling. The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico devastated and continues to haunt that region. Don't risk the same fate, and worse, for the Atlantic and Arctic oceans by opening these regions to unsafe oil drilling. The rush to allow oil drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans moves us away from a clean energy future that doesn't rely on dirty fossil fuels.
Opening these areas to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling is simply incompatible with the future of America's coastlines and beaches. The Gulf of Mexico still has not recovered from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill. Oil continues to wash ashore on Gulf beaches, and commercial fisheries and marine populations have not rebounded. And even 25 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, fisheries and marine mammal populations in Prince William Sound have not recovered.
In addition, new offshore leasing and drilling is at odds with fighting climate disruption. President Obama and this administration have done more to combat climate change than any other in American history. The May 6, 2014, National Climate Assessment tells an unambiguous story: The planet is warming, and over the last half-century this warming has been driven predominantly by the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas. If we’re serious about averting an additional 2-degree temperature increase and avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, we have to keep dirty fuels like oil and gas in the ground. That should start with protecting fragile areas and areas that have not yet been opened to exploration.
In the Arctic, government scientists agree that more data is needed to fully understand the impacts of oil drilling in the region; that an oil spill could not be effectively cleaned up in the icy and stormy Arctic; and that the lack of infrastructure in the Arctic is a significant liability in the event of a large oil spill. An oil spill in the Arctic Ocean could devastate endangered bowhead whales, polar bears, seals, and other marine wildlife, and could severely affect Native subsistence communities that have thrived in this remote region for thousands of years.
In the Atlantic, leading ocean scientists are urging the president to prevent any seismic testing for oil and gas reserves in order to protect whales and other marine mammals. If allowed to proceed, this testing would harm the critically endangered right whale, disrupt fisheries, and open the door for risky drilling and attendant pollution along the East Coast.
The president's work fighting climate disruption must extend to include protecting our coasts and beaches from drilling. Please step back and reassess whether to open the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to oil drilling. The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico devastated and continues to haunt that region. Don't risk the same fate, and worse, for the Atlantic and Arctic oceans by opening these regions to unsafe oil drilling. The rush to allow oil drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans moves us away from a clean energy future that doesn't rely on dirty fossil fuels.
Why is this important?
Five years ago, millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Gulf still hasn’t fully recovered from the spill, yet now the Department of the Interior is proposing to open even more of our coastal waters to offshore drilling. This shortsighted and irresponsible policy would put our coastal ecosystems and communities at even greater risk, and is shortsighted and irresponsible policy.
Earthjustice and I are partnering with groups across the country to demand action now to keep more drill rigs out of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. And we need your help.
Join me in telling the Obama administration to stop new leasing in the Atlantic and the Arctic oceans.
New offshore drilling and leasing in those areas would open fragile and priceless coastal ecosystems to damage from pollution and spills, pose immeasurable risk to economies and communities up and down the Atlantic seaboard, and accelerate global climate disruption.
An oil spill in any body of water causes irreparable damage. It’s just not worth it. If we’re going to successfully turn the tide on climate change, we must move away from all fossil fuels—whether it’s fracking, tar sands, mountaintop removal, or offshore drilling—and focus our efforts on increasing renewable energy.
Now is the time to tell the Department of the Interior that drill rigs have no place in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
Earthjustice and I are partnering with groups across the country to demand action now to keep more drill rigs out of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. And we need your help.
Join me in telling the Obama administration to stop new leasing in the Atlantic and the Arctic oceans.
New offshore drilling and leasing in those areas would open fragile and priceless coastal ecosystems to damage from pollution and spills, pose immeasurable risk to economies and communities up and down the Atlantic seaboard, and accelerate global climate disruption.
An oil spill in any body of water causes irreparable damage. It’s just not worth it. If we’re going to successfully turn the tide on climate change, we must move away from all fossil fuels—whether it’s fracking, tar sands, mountaintop removal, or offshore drilling—and focus our efforts on increasing renewable energy.
Now is the time to tell the Department of the Interior that drill rigs have no place in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.