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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Coastal Waters Still Jeopardized By Drilling
Despite a victory in Congress in late spring that upheld the 25-year ban on offshore gas drilling, more legislation was pending that could open all of America's coasts to oil and gas drilling as this issue went to press.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) was expected to propose giving individual states the choice to opt out of the longstanding drilling moratorium. This would expose all U.S. coasts to the possibility of highly toxic spills and pollution from the routine dumping of drilling wastes that threaten fisheries, marine wildlife and public health. "Oceans and marine wildlife don't recognize state boundaries," says Lydia Weiss, Defenders' government relations energy advocate. "Nor do oil spills. Should one state decide to allow drilling, the inevitable spills off its coasts are certain to affect the coasts of neighboring states."
Further, she says, lifting the offshore drilling moratorium would do nothing to lower today's energy prices or make the United States energy independent. "While the country consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, we sit on just three percent of the global reserves," says Weiss. "We simply can't drill our way out of energy problems."
Rather than industrializing U.S. coasts and handing more resources over to the profit-laden oil industry, Defenders is pushing House leaders to pursue renewable, clean and effective energy sources.
For up-to-date information on this and other issues, visit Defenders' wildlife action center.
