OCEAN CITY- Facing a groundswell of opposition from communities up and down the east coast including Ocean City, the Obama administration this week announced it was abandoning plans to open a vast swath of ocean off the mid-Atlantic coast as close as 20 miles from the resort to offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
Communities up and down the east coast and throughout the mid-Atlantic region breathed a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday when the Obama administration reversed course on a controversial plan to lease a vast area totaling nearly three million acres off the mid-Atlantic coast to offshore drilling for oil and natural gas reserves. The federal government’s reversal came after well over a year of strong opposition to the proposal from local, state and elected officials, environmental advocacy groups and hundreds of coastal communities up and down the east coast whose economies rely on clean oceans, healthy natural resources, tourism and commercial and recreational fishing.
Opening the three million-acres off the mid-Atlantic coast were part of the administration’s larger plan to lease vast areas in the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska from 2017 to 2021. While the Gulf and Alaska areas are still on the table after the Department of the Interior released its amended plan on Tuesday, the highly controversial mid-Atlantic area proposed for lease to large oil companies for exploration and excavation were taken out of the equation. Department of Interior
Secretary Sally Jewel said at the amended plan’s unveiling on Tuesday, the groundswell of opposition voiced throughout the public comment by hundreds of coastal communities and their representatives, including Ocean City, Fenwick Island and Berlin locally, were reason enough to eliminate the mid-Atlantic area from consideration.
“We heard from many corners that now is not the time to offer oil and gas leasing off the Atlantic coast,” said Jewell. “When you factor in conflicts with national defense, economic activities such as fishing and tourism, and opposition from many local communities, it simply doesn’t make sense to move forward with any lease sales in the coming five years.”
In January 2015, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced a proposal to lease a 2.9 million acre 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, 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.
While the proposed lease area included 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 raised concerns about erecting massive offshore oil rigs in ecologically sensitive areas off the mid-Atlantic coast, while others were concerned the plan signaled 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 was reason for concern on many levels. The area targeted off the coast of Virginia was 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 included 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.
For that reason, coastal communities from Maine to Georgia, including Ocean City and Assateague, Fenwick Island and Virginia Beach approved formal resolutions against the proposed plan.
For many, the potential gains from opening the mid-Atlantic coast to offshore oil and gas drilling simply don’t outweigh the risks. 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.
Locally, the opposition was largely spearheaded by the Assateague Coastal Trust. Around this time last year, ACT’s Offshore Oil Campaign Outreach Coordinator Matt Heim laid out the potential economic impact for Ocean City and Assateague.
“Visitor spending in Worcester County accounts for about $1.5 billion and provides millions of tax dollars to both the state and county annually,” said ACT Outreach Coordinator Matt Heim, who has been leading the organization’s efforts in opposition to the proposal. “What would happen if even a small spill closed our beaches for a few weeks over the summer? That could make or break so many small businesses.”
When the news broke on Tuesday that the proposed mid-Atlantic lease areas had been removed from the plan, Heim praised the groundswell of opposition from nearly every corner.
“This announcement is the result of an enormous effort by our coastal communities to organize and speak out loud and clear against this threat to “It truly is inspiring to see the impact citizen’s voices can have. We played a huge role in this decision here locally. The united opposition on Delmarva, including the nine resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic passed by local communities, were crucial in removing the waters off Virginia’s coast from the leasing program. I can’t help but smile when I think about all the people who came together and all the work that went in to making this day a reality.”
For her part, Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips said she was pleased the mid-Atlantic region was left out of the offshore drilling plan, but said the battle is not over for other coastal communities in the Gulf and in Alaska, for example.
“All of our oceans and coastal watersheds deserve this same level of protection,” she said. “We must find a way to stop extracting fossil fuels from the earth and instead turn our full attention to developing sustainable energy production that does not increase our carbon footprint. Only in this way can we diminish sea level rise and decrease impacts from climate change. ”
Maryland’s Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin were among congressional leaders from east coast states who fiercely opposed offshore drilling and seismic testing from the beginning when the proposal was announced over a year ago. Mikulski said this week she was pleased with the federal government’s reversal on the proposed drilling just off Maryland’s Atlantic coast.
“I am absolutely opposed to offshore drilling and always will be,” she said. “I fought tooth and nail to protect Maryland’s coastal economies from offshore drilling and am pleased the administration has reversed its plan to allow drilling off the Atlantic Coast.”
Mikulski said the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf was reason enough to eliminate all-important mid-Atlantic coast from consideration for oil and natural gas drilling and seismic testing.
“As we saw after the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, when oil starts to leak it knows no boundaries,” she said. “Drilling off the coast of Virginia and other states along the eastern seaboard could pose great risks to the coastal economy of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. 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. I will keep fighting to protect Maryland’s beaches, precious waterways and tourism economy.”
While the Obama administration’s decision to remove the proposed mid-Atlantic lease areas from the 2017-2021 plan, Cardin said this week he hopes it never resurfaces, so to speak.
“For years, I have strongly opposed plans to expand drilling operations off the Atlantic Coast,” said Cardin. “It is my hope that this decision finally puts to rest any and all misguided attempts to endanger the economic viability and environmental health of the region.”
Like many of the plan’s detractors, Cardin said the potential gains from the oil and gas reserves off the mid-Atlantic coast did not outweigh the potential risks.
“America is already the largest producer of oil and natural gas,” he said. “The risk for another Deepwater Horizon-type disaster simply outweighs any potential benefits associated with more drilling. Oil spills and the damage associated with seismic exploration do not respect state boundaries, making drilling anywhere on the Atlantic Coast a threat everywhere on the Atlantic Coast.”
While Ocean City and Assateague were breathing a sigh of relief on Tuesday, neighboring Delaware was also praising the federal government’s decision to remove the mid-Atlantic lease areas.
John Carney
“The Administration’s announcement today comes as a sigh of relief for folks in Delaware,” said U.S. Senator for Delaware John Carney. “This proposal put our state and our neighbors at risk of suffering the same devastation we’ve seen time and again from oil spills around the world. It’s just not worth it. I’m glad the administration heard our concerns, and I applaud them on the reversal of this decision.”
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has been a strong opponent of drilling off the state’s coast since the proposal was announced a year ago. Late last year, Frosh fired off a strongly worded letter to BOEM urging the federal agency to reconsider its plan. For all of the public and private sector agencies opposed to the plan, the issue boils down to preserving the natural resources along Ocean City and Assateague and protecting the economies that rely on them. This week, Frosh praised the Interior Department’s decision to remove the mid-Atlantic region.
“This is a terrific decision by President Obama,” he said. “Our experience in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere around the country, and around the world, shows just what happens when oil drilling goes wrong. But even when it goes right, the effects are dangerous.”
While the decision announced this week removes the mid-Atlantic areas off the coast from lease consideration, the potential for offshore seismic testing for possible reserves still exists.
Last year, BOEM released its final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for seismic air gun testing in the mid-Atlantic, essentially opining the potential rewards outweigh any possible impact to marine life. While there are still several hurdles to clear before seismic air guns are blasted into the ocean floor off the mid-Atlantic coast, the PEIS represents the federal government’s intention to move forward with the practice despite an outcry of opposition from many corners.
“Seismic testing harms marine life,” said Frosh. “Industrial activity destroys fragile coastal environments. Routine and inevitable leakage fouls water and kills fish and plants. There is simply no reason to play Russian roulette with the Chesapeake Bay or with vulnerable Atlantic Coast shoreline.”
The Surfrider Foundation has been at the forefront of the wave of opposition since the beginning, both locally and up and down the coast. After Tuesday’s announcement, the Surfrider Foundation released a statement praising the decision.
“The Surfrider Foundation applauds the federal government’s leadership on this issue,” the statement reads. “Offshore drilling is a dirty and dangerous practice that threatens the health of our oceans and coastal communities. It requires seismic surveys, drilling operations, oil transport by tankers, and the installation of platforms, pipelines, and other infrastructure. Collectively these activities significantly damage both the environment and related economies, while exposing our coastlines to the risk of catastrophic oil spills. Our federal government has heard the voices of countless stakeholders who are strongly opposed to the expansion of offshore drilling in the Atlantic coast, including the Surfrider Foundation, which represents more than 250,000 members and supporters nationwide with 34 East Coast chapters from Maine to Florida.”
Closer to home, Surfrider Foundation Ocean City Chapter volunteer Jane Robinson praised the strong opposition locally and nationally.
“We are thrilled that towns like Ocean City and many other took a stand against offshore drilling by passing local resolutions,” said Jane Robinson, a volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean City Chapter. “This is a great step in protecting the Atlantic.”
Perhaps the strongest opponent of the drilling plan was Oceana, a grassroots environment advocacy group. Oceana Vice President Jacqueline Savitz said on Tuesday the administration’s reversal was a big one.
“President Obama has taken a giant step for our oceans, for coastal economies and for mitigating climate change,” she said. “This is a courageous decision that begins the shift to a new energy paradigm, where clean energy replaces fossil fuels, and where we can avoid the worst impacts of decades of our carbon dioxide emissions.”