Washington, D.C. — Center for American Progress Director of Ocean Policy Michael Conathan issued the following statement in reaction to the release of the Obama administration’s offshore drilling plan. The proposed plan reverses previous efforts to open the Atlantic Ocean to offshore oil and gas drilling.
This plan clearly shows that the Obama administration heeded the voices of more than 100 coastal communities from New Jersey to Florida and dozens of bipartisan members of Congress who asserted that the risks of oil and gas drilling far outweigh the potential gains. Robust coastal economies require healthy beaches and clean water to create jobs; as we saw too plainly following the 2010 BP disaster, offshore oil development leads to neither. Rather than extracting more fossil fuels that drive the sea-level rise and extreme weather already threatening the region, these states can now focus on growing sustainable industries such as tourism and recreation, commercial fisheries, and offshore wind generation.
