OCEAN CITY — Fittingly on Earth Day and the five-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a core group of east coast Senators, including Maryland’s Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, introduced legislation prohibiting the lease of vast areas off the mid-Atlantic coast for offshore oil and natural gas drilling.
On Wednesday, Cardin and Mikulski were among the group of senators from east coast states to introduce the Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act. The legislation would prohibit the Department of the Interior from issuing leases for the exploration, development or production of oil or gas off the Atlantic coast. Earlier this year, the Obama administration announced plans to open part of the Atlantic to offshore oil and gas drilling.
As part of the Obama administration’s strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, the Department of the Interior this week announced the next step in the development of the nation’s five-year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing program. Under the proposal announced in January, 14 potential lease sales could occur in eight different planning areas along the nation’s coastline including a vast swath of open ocean off the mid-Atlantic coast.
The plan calls for leasing a 2.9 million acre swath of ocean off the coast of Virginia for oil and natural gas exploration and, eventually, excavation. From the beginning, environmental groups have opposed the potential lease sales, including the public and private sector in Maryland, where future oil rigs could loom just 50 miles off the coast of Ocean City, Assateague and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Locally, there is reason for concern on several levels. The area targeted off the coast of Virginia is just 50 miles from Assateague Island and Ocean City. There are considerable 25- and 50-mile buffers in place between the easternmost edge of the target area 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.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is currently in the midst of holding a series of public information sessions up and down the coast. Meanwhile, Cardin, Mikulski and other Senators from east coast states this week introduced the COAST Anti-Drilling Act in an attempt to thwart the proposed leases off the Atlantic coast.
“Oil spills do not respect state boundaries, making the risks of drilling off the Atlantic coast far greater than the rewards,” Cardin said this week. “We are still trying to clean up after the BP oil spill. The Chesapeake Bay, which generates more than $1 trillion in economic activity for the mid-Atlantic region, does not need yet another threat to its future health and vitality.”
For her part, Mikulski said this week she is absolutely opposed to offshore drilling and always will be.
“Offshore drilling can devastate the environment, harming our unique and fragile coastline and wreaking havoc on the coastal communities whose economies rely heavily on tourism,” she said. “Drilling along the eastern seaboard could pose great risks to the coastal economy of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. I’m proud to support this legislation and will keep fighting to protect Maryland’s beaches, precious waterways and tourism economy.”
The introduction of the COAST Anti-Drilling Act came on Earth Day and the five-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps the worst spill of its kind in the nation’s history.
“It has been five years since the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, yet offshore drilling is still not safe,” said Oceana Vice President Jacqueline Savitz. “We are only now beginning to understand the true effects of the BP oil disaster. Drilling in the Atlantic could destroy coastal communities, economies, fish and marine mammals for decades to come. It would lead to a coastline scattered with oil and gas rigs and industrialization in coastal communities. Commercial fishing, tourism and recreation would suffer from routine leaks as well as the looming risk of a Deepwater Horizon-like oil disaster along the east coast.”
Meanwhile, BOEM officials this week marked the five-year anniversary by outlining the progress that has been made since the BP disaster.
“In the five years since the worst oil spill in U.S. history, progress by the Department of the Interior in adopting many of the reforms recommended by the National Commission on the BP Oil Spill is significant, providing Americans reassurance that Interior has upped its game and bolstered capabilities to minimize the prospect that another spill would devastate natural resources and local economies or lead to the tragic loss of life we saw in the Gulf from the rig explosion,” said William Reilly, who co-chaired the National Commission on the BP Oil Spill and the Future of Offshore Drilling.