OCEAN CITY — The battle against the federal government’s proposal to open a vast area off the mid-Atlantic coast to offshore oil and natural gas drilling will hit close to home this week with a “Hands Across the Sand” event planned for the beach in Ocean City on Saturday.
In January, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced a proposal to lease a 2.9 million acres swath 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, has been holding public information meetings up and down the east coast throughout much of the winter and early spring.
On Saturday, the Ocean City chapter of the Surfrider Foundation will host a beach cleanup followed by a “Hands Across the Sand” rally on the beach at 8th Street. The local “Hands Across the Sand” rally will be held in conjunction with similar events in beach communities up and down the coast in a show of solidarity to raise awareness about the dangers of offshore drilling and call on leaders to end the nation’s dependence on oil and move toward a clean energy future.
Surfrider Foundation members along with local residents, visitors to the resort and other stakeholders will hold a beach cleanup at 10 a.m., followed by Hands Across the Sand event. At noon, participants will join hands for 15 minutes to form a line along the shoreline.
“This movement is not about politics,” said Hands Across the Sand founder Dave Rauschkolb. “It is about the protection of our coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife, fisheries and our land environment. The accidents that continue to happen in offshore oil drilling are a threat to all of the above as well the affect that seismic testing offshore, hydraulic fracturing and other issues are having on our environment.”
While the proposed lease area includes a nearly three million acre swath of ocean floor 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, while others are concerned the plan signals an expansion of non-renewable, fossil-based energy sources.