OCEAN CITY — There were more questions than answers this week when a large contingent from the Lower Shore joined dozens of others at a public meeting in Annapolis on Monday on the federal government’s proposed lease of a vast area off the mid-Atlantic coast for offshore oil and natural gas drilling.
In January, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced a proposal to lease 2.9 million acres of ocean off the coast off the mid-Atlantic coast for oil and natural gas exploration, and, eventually, excavation. As part of the Obama Administration’s strategy to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, the Department of the Interior, through BOEM, announced the proposed lease program off the mid-Atlantic coast and opened a public comment period to allow citizens to weigh in on the proposal.
In addition to the public comment period, BOEM is conducting a series of public meetings up and down the east coast to present the proposal and accept public comments and answer questions in person. On Monday, a public meeting was held in Annapolis to allow Marylanders and others to voice their concerns.
The meeting was attended by at least 20 area residents including representatives from the Assateague Coastal Trust and the Surfrider Foundation as well as dozens more from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Oceana, for example. However, the attendees left the meeting with more questions than answers, according to Assateague Coastal Trust Director and Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips.
“We had a lot of questions that couldn’t be answered at the meeting because most of the natural resources staff people had left by 6 p.m.,” she said. “But one interesting thing that came to light is that offshore fracking would also be allowed alongside of the drilling. In fact, one helps that other.”
Phillips said one issue that came to light on Monday is just how complex and convoluted the public comment period for all of the phases of the proposal is.
“It was worth the trip to attend the meeting,” she said. “Their presentation shed light on how cumbersome this public comment process really is.”
For example, there are several public meetings scheduled on the issue up and down the east coast that end on March 30. Another set of meetings is scheduled on a different aspect of the proposal throughout the mid-Atlantic, including another meeting scheduled for Annapolis on April 1.
“We now have a better understanding of the multiple parallel comment periods that are taking place at the same time,” said Phillips. “One track is to submit comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement with a public comment period that ends March 30. The second parallel track is a draft programmatic plan that has a later end to the public comment period. In fact, there will now be another duplicate set of public meetings throughout the mid-Atlantic coast to present this other phase for public comment.”
While the proposed lease area includes the vast nearly three million acre swath off the Virginia coast, detractors warn future oil rigs could loom just 50 miles off the coast of Ocean City, Assateague and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Many have already raised concerns about erecting massive offshore oil rigs in ecologically sensitive areas off the mid-Atlantic coast, while others are concerned the plan signals an expansion of non-renewable, fossil-based energy sources while there is growing momentum to move forward with renewable, sustainable energy, including the proposed offshore wind energy farm off the coast of Ocean City.
Locally, there is reason for concern on many levels. The area targeted off the coast of Virginia is just 50 miles from Assateague Island and, by extension, the Maryland coast including Ocean City. There are considerable 25- and 50-mile buffers in place between the easternmost edge of the target area and the Maryland and Virginia coasts, and the plan also includes a no obstruction zone at the mouth of the Chesapeake, but the proposed offshore drilling area is still a little too close for comfort for many in the area.
Opponents to the proposed oil and natural gas leases off the mid-Atlantic coast point to the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico a few years back, the effects of which are still being felt. ACT officials have said the proposed lease of roughly three million acres off the Virginia coast puts the Delmarva coastline, including Ocean City and Assateague, for example, in the crosshairs of the similar disaster in the future, threatening the complex ecosystems and fish and marine mammal populations while putting region’s $2 billion tourism economy and $1 billion recreational and commercial fishing industries at risk.
For many, the potential exploration and excavation of the oil and gas reserves off the mid-Atlantic coast are simply not worth the risk. For example, the estimated three billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of gas expected to found in the mid-Atlantic lease areas represent only four percent of the nation’s total reserves.