Members of Congress release citizens’ pleas to President Obama: Stop new offshore drilling!

Posted on July 12, 2010
Filed Under Green Celebs, News, Uncategorized, oil spill |

By Brandon Rose

Environment America joined with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 29, to release more than 400,000 comments from citizens all around the U.S. asking President Obama to protect our oceans and coasts from the expansion of offshore drilling. The comments were submitted on the president’s next five-year Drilling Plan from 2012 to 2017, a day before the close of the comment period.

Oceana, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace, MoveOn, League of Conservation Voters and Ocean Champions collected the boxes of citizens’ comments that sat behind the respected speakers. The comments came from emails, door-to-door canvassing in coastal areas, and post cards. Representative Pallone, D-NJ, Representative Castor, D-FL, Representative Garamendi, D-CA, all spoke about the need for our country to stop our oil addiction, new offshore drilling, and move to less risky renewable energy.

Anna Aurillo, Director of the Washington Office of Environment America, said:

This past weekend we saw Hands Across the Sand events held on Saturday at more than 900 beaches around the country and the world – the largest ever public demonstration against offshore drilling. Today, more than 400,000 citizens are sending a loud and clear message to the President that his plan to expand offshore drilling to new coasts is a bad idea. Instead of more drills and spills, we want more windmills and to end our dependence on oil.

Under provisions in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), the president of the U.S. may administratively withdraw entire planning areas from consideration for easing the nation’s drilling plan. Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have used this power to protect areas of the U.S. coast from drilling.

We need to learn from our mistakes, now! There needs to be oil reform, just like there was reform on Wall Street. BP has been prioritizing profits over safety. Therefore, the government needs to step in and reform before another environmental disaster occurs.

Congressman Garamendi said:

“Do we need any more of a lesson than what we now see in the Gulf of Mexico? Yet in the halls of this Congress, there are many representatives that have not learned,” Congressman Garamendi said. “The Republican Party is still saying ‘drill, baby, drill’ when we know it’s really ’spill, baby, spill.’ Today 400,000 Americans are sending the powerful message that there are better alternatives.”

“It’s time for us to move away from a dependence on oil. As long as we continue to seek that oil fix, we’ll continue the addiction,” Garamendi added. “What if instead of massive oil subsidies and the inevitable cost of spill cleanup, we instead invested in renewable energy and conservation? Where would we be? We’re making choices here, and those choices determine whether we’ll have an ability to break our addiction to oil.”

Rep. Castor explained that this disaster is costing Florida more than $10 billion dollars because of its economic dependence on tourism, clean beaches, and fishing. This is especially tough on Florida since America’s economic recession. BP’s Tony Hayward tells the public that this disaster is 1 in a million. However, there have been 126 blowouts in Mexico since 1971. If BP spent $20 Billion on research in renewable energy like wind turbines and solar energy instead of cleaning up the oil they spilled in the Gulf, we would be getting our energy safer without having to drill deep into our oceans. These operations are proven to be risky and we need to make sure that this BP oil spill is the last great example of why our country needs to move to renewable energy.

Members of Congress release citizens’ pleas to President Obama: Stop new offshore drilling!

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