OCEAN CITY — With the clock ticking on the public comment period and a public meeting scheduled in Annapolis next week on the federal government’s proposed lease of a vast area off the mid-Atlantic coast for offshore oil and natural gas drilling, environmental groups were lining up the troops in opposition this week.
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. The plan is part of a larger effort to wean the U.S. off foreign oil dependence by tapping the nation’s underutilized energy resources.
While few would argue with the concept, detractors are already lining up to oppose the proposal from New Jersey to Florida, 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. Many have already raised concerns about erecting massive offshore oil rigs in ecologically sensitive areas while others are concerned the plan signals an expansion of non-renewable, fossil-based energy sources while there is growing momentum to move toward renewable, sustainable energy.
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, 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.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is facilitating the lease sale, announced the next step in the process in January. BOEM opened the public comment period, which is expected to expire on March 30. BOEM will also be taking public comments at a meeting in Annapolis set for Monday, and the Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) is mobilizing a group from the Delmarva region to attend and voice their opposition. ACT Executive Director and Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips said this week the organization is steadfast in its opposition to the proposed offshore leases.
“ACT stands firm in its commitment to encourage solar and offshore wind energy development for our region, with less dependency on fossil fuel technologies,” said ACT Executive Director and Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips. “If these lease proposals are approved by BOEM, it would put the Delmarva coastline in the crosshairs of a future BP-style disaster, essentially destroying the Eastern Shore’s nearly $2 billion tourism economy, nearly $1 billion commercial and recreational fishing industry and our priceless coastal ecosystem. Even a small spill could have devastating effects on a region so reliant on clean water and beaches.”
Phillips said the proposal fails to draw on lessons learned from the BP disaster in the Gulf a few years ago and similar spills and accidents around the nation’s shorelines.
“ACT is deeply concerned about the economic impacts active oil and gas development will have on the seaside aquaculture industry on our Virginia Eastern Shore and to our beloved clean beaches of Assateague Island, Chincoteague Island and Ocean City,” she said. “We know from experience on the West Coast and along the Gulf coast that active oil and gas extraction causes minor pollution on a day-to-day basis, trash from the platforms, oil sheens that travel with the wind and currents, onshore infrastructure to move the product.”
Phillips said the estimated 2.92 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of gas expected to be found in the mid-Atlantic lease areas represent only a fraction of the nation’s reserves and do not offset the potential risks.
“For a region that is only capable of producing four percent of the total reserves in the U.S., is the minor local economic boost from this dirty fossil fuel industry along our mid-Atlantic shoreline really worth the risk to our tourism and fishing industries?” she said.
ACT is just one organization mobilizing for the public meeting on Monday. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is also expected to have a strong presence.
“The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure and drilling offshore poses unjustifiable risks to the bay, its living resources, the tourism economy and the many jobs dependent on clean water,” said CBF Vice President Kim Coble. “Offshore drilling creates a new pollution source, one capable of significant, even devastating environmental damage from drilling, transportation, storage or refinement. The economic impact from any spill could be huge, hurting commercial watermen, recreational fishing and tourism.”