Comment Period Ending for Offshore Drilling
Posted August 15, 2017 05:55 am | Public News Service
Deep Water Horizon BP disaster
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Just a couple of days are left
to comment
on a plan by the Trump administration to undo Obama-era
protections for the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
President Trump has vowed to take steps to reopen the
ocean territories to oil and gas drilling, saying it
would boost the economy and expand America's energy
potential.
But, what it will do to wildlife and the environment is
causing concern for coastal defender Mike Gibaldi with
the Miami chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. He cites
the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 as what could
happen off Florida's coast.
"Water moves, wind blows, storms come ashore," he says.
"Anything that's off or near Florida could potentially
bring oil to my family's beach, up the whole coast."
In a poll late last year by the Natural Resources
Defense Council and League of Conservation Voters,
nearly 60 percent of those surveyed say they would
support permanently
protecting the Arctic and Atlantic coasts.
The
managing attorney for Earthjustice's oceans program,
Steve Mashuda, says it's not worth the risk.
"The harm that would be caused by an oil spill, any kind
of industrial development of that scale in these waters
is counterproductive for the economy that exists along
the Atlantic coastline today," he explains.
Mashuda says carbon pollution already is damaging the
coastline because global warming is causing the water
levels to rise. The threat to wildlife is extreme as
well.
"The seismic airgun surveys which are currently proposed
for a vast swath of the Atlantic coast, these surveys
are incredibly devastating to marine mammals in
particular, but also to fish and the zoo plankton that
form the base of the food chain," he notes.
Acting Assistant Interior Secretary Kate MacGregor says
under the Obama administration, 94 percent of the outer
shelf was off limits to development, despite interest
from state and local governments and industry leaders.
She adds the Trump administration is dedicated to energy
dominance.
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