Obama Announces Offshore Drilling Plan

Last week, the Obama administration announced its very unfortunate plan to move forward on offshore drilling.  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been involved in rewriting the Bush 5-year drilling plan for the better part of a year, a plan that opened virtually all of our coasts to industrial development.  Obama's announcement on Tuesday, March 30th, while nowhere near as destructive as the previous plan, still puts highly valuable coastal economies and ecosystems at risk and does not send the right signal about transitioning to a clean energy economy.

The plan, as laid out by Obama, would open the Mid and South Atlantic (from Delaware through Cape Canaveral) to exploratory seismic testing, would go forward with a lease off Virginia's coast (following an assessment of environmental impacts), would allow a lease in the Eastern Gulf (assuming the same set of environmental analyses), and would allow exploratory drilling in Alaska's ice-choked Beaufort and Chukchi seas to go forth.

Read our press release about this disappointing decision.

Take action to keep offshore drilling out of the climate bill!

Comments

[Chris]

Its about time, Its better that americas money stay in america rather than being shipped to other countrys.

[Elaine Trogman]

I am disappointed that we are going to allow destructive drilling off the East and the Eastern Gulf. Our oceans are in terrible shape now, with many dead zone. This could only worsen the situation.