Washington, D.C. — The Center for American Progress has released a new column that shows how offshore drilling along the Atlantic coast fails to make economic and environmental sense and calls on the U.S. Department of the Interior to leave it out of the forthcoming draft of its 2017–2022 offshore oil and gas development plan.
“On a broadly bipartisan basis, more than 100 coastal cities and towns, members of Congress, and chambers of commerce from New Jersey to Florida have formally opposed offshore oil development along the Atlantic coast because it just doesn’t add up environmentally or economically,” said Shiva Polefka, CAP Policy Analyst and author of the column. “They’re standing up to protect the clean beaches, healthy fish stocks, and coastal way of life that form the bedrock of their economies and communities.”
The column argues that with oil prices at record lows and conservative estimates of the region’s clean, renewable energy resources indicating that they could provide a substantially more robust economic impact than drilling, offshore oil and gas development is the wrong energy choice for the region. Pursuing the development of renewable resources such as offshore wind could yield an economic boost without jeopardizing the Mid-Atlantic region’s thriving tourism, real estate, and fishing industries with a catastrophic oil spill, like BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. The column also points out that federal legislation to divert prospective royalties from federal offshore development to the coffers of pro-drilling Atlantic coast states—as sought by oil advocates such as North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R)—make little sense for a U.S. Congress prioritizing fiscal responsibility and restraint.
Click here to read the column.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.