Fodder for amplification. Thanks in advance for those who can. Best, Franz
OFFSHORE DRILLING
A protester against oil drilling off the California coast joins a rally at the state Capitol in Sacramento against the Trump administration plan to propose drilling rights.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Florida’s beaches are
too important to be put at risk of the next BP-style disaster. And yet, he wants to expose Virginia waters and coastal communities to the hazards and harm of offshore oil and gas drilling.
Virginians should not be fooled. Rolling the dice on Virginia’s rich coastal waters and all they support is a reckless gamble we can’t afford. Zinke needs to get that message loud and clear when
the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hosts a
public meeting on the issue in Richmond on Feb. 21.
The 2010 BP blowout killed 11 workers, dumped millions of barrels of toxic crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, shut down commercial and recreational fishing for months, and threw thousands of people
out of work. It
oiled beaches and wetlands along a stretch that extended 1,300 miles — the distance from New York City to the Florida Keys.
That means Virginia isn’t safe unless the whole region is safe.
And imagine what not being safe means to a place like Virginia Beach, where tourism alone brings in $1.4 billion a year. Imagine oil pouring into the Chesapeake Bay, nursery for a
Virginia fisheries industry that lands some $170 million worth of sea scallops, oysters, rockfish, blue crabs, and other seafood each year. Imagine that oil rolling into Back Bay, across the beaches of Assateague, up the tidal reaches of the James River
and over mud flats and
wetlands that support grass shrimp, shad, and waterfowl of every description.
Catastrophic risk, though, is just part of the price coastal communities pay for these inherently dangerous industrial operations at sea. Short of disaster, they produce ongoing harm.
In the Gulf of Mexico, there’ve been more than 3,000 explosions, blowouts, fires, and other accidents that have caused more than 1,000 injuries due to offshore oil and gas production over just
the past five years. There’ve been 30 oil spills of more than 2,000 gallons each, and countless lesser spills that aren’t even reported.
The damage begins long before the first well is drilled, when prospectors map the sea floor using powerful seismic blasting that is harmful, and potentially lethal, to whales and other marine
life.
The fact is, offshore drilling turns coastal areas into industrial zones, replete with extensive networks of pipelines, equipment depots, and trucking operations that bring disruption and pollution
around the clock. It’s completely incompatible with the coastal amenities that have made Tidewater Virginia one of the most attractive places on the Eastern Seaboard to visit, work, raise a family, or retire.
Let’s remember, these are public waters we’re talking about — federal resources that, in every sense, belong to you and me.
Zinke wants to put all of that at risk for what President Trump calls “energy dominance.”
Baloney.
We produce, in this country,
13 million barrels a day of oil and natural gas liquids — which are processed much like crude oil into fuels — more than at any other time in our history.
What’s happening to it?
The oil industry exports 6.2 million barrels a day of crude oil and refined petroleum products — also an all-time record.
Some dominance. Our workers get the hazard, our communities get the risk, and our friends and rivals overseas get the fuel.
There are far more promising options, as we’re seeing across the commonwealth, where Virginians by the thousands are rolling up their sleeves and working to improve energy efficiency, so we do
more with less waste and helping to produce more clean, homegrown power from the wind and sun.
Exposing our waters and coastal communities to the dangers of offshore drilling isn’t about energy security. It’s about big profits for big oil, an industry that’s eyeing Atlantic waters for crude
it doesn’t even expect to use for another 20 or 30 years.
Really? Let’s hope by then we’ve moved on to cleaner, smarter ways to power our economy. If not, we’ll be speeding climate change so much that rising seas will swallow or swamp much of the Virginia
coast in another generation or two.
The people of Virginia can do better than that. Let’s stand up for healthy oceans, marine life, and coasts. Let’s stand up for all they support. And let’s stand up for our children’s future.
Rhea Suh is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group with more than 3 million supporters nationwide. Contact her at
Rssuh@nrdc.org.
FRANZ A. MATZNER
Director of Federal Affairs
Center for Policy Advocacy
NATURAL RESOURCES
DEFENSE COUNCIL
1152 15TH STREET NW, SUITE 300
WASHINGTON, DC 20005
T 202.289.2365
M 202.422.5382