Environment America
is firmly opposed to proposals by President Bush, Senator McCain and
Congressman Peterson to continue decades of failed energy policy by opening our
protected coasts to offshore drilling.
Drilling in these protected areas is not the solution to high oil
prices, we need to reduce our dependence on oil. Instead of opening every last corner of our
country to oil drilling, we need to produce cars that go further on a gallon of
gasoline, invest in mass transit and other alternatives to driving, and develop
clean renewable energy.
President Bush, Senator McCain and Congressman Peterson are
ignoring the real potential of clean energy technologies to build our economy
and reduce our dependence on oil.
There’s no need to sacrifice our white sandy beaches for more oil
industry profits when we have the technology to build cars that go 100 miles
per gallon.
According to President Bush’s own Energy Information
Administration, drilling in currently protected offshore areas would not
significantly affect domestic oil production until 2030 and the impact on
prices would be “insignificant.”
Moreover,
offshore drilling proposals threaten sensitive coasts, beaches and beloved parks with
chronic pollution from oil and gas production and catastrophic spills from
platforms and pipelines or tankers and barges that bring oil onshore. At each stage of testing, exploration, and
production, the oil and gas business produces contaminated water, uses toxic drilling
muds, and periodically spills oil and toxic liquids into the ocean. Pollutants like mercury and persistent
hydrocarbons contaminate fish and sea life near platforms and massive spills
kill seabirds, sea turtles, fish and marine mammals. At stake are Virginia’s Chincoteague Island, Cape Cod
National Seashore, Sandy Hook in New Jersey, the
Outer Banks of North Carolina, Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, and Pt. Reyes in California, to name
just a few.
Coastal
states with protected beaches benefit from tens of billions of dollars of
tourist economy expenditures on everything from hotels, house rentals and meals
to fishing tackle and boat rentals. California has a
1,000 mile coast with 450 beaches and tens of billions of dollars of
expenditures and tens of thousands of jobs based on ocean-beach
recreation. Tourists to Florida, many of
them drawn to the states beautiful beaches and coastal waters, generated 85
million visits in 2005 creating almost 1 million jobs and generating $57
billion in taxable transactions.
Environment
America urges the
President and the Congress to reject these wrongheaded proposals and focus
on real opportunities to move us towards a clean energy economy. Making our cars, trucks and buildings more
efficient and shifting to clean renewable energy is the smart way to solve our
energy crisis.
Congress
should start by passing an extension of tax credits for clean energy sources,
plug in hybrids and efficiency. These tax credits are essential for ensuring
clean energy solutions like wind, solar and plug-in hybrids make it to the
marketplace. We must also make sure that we are going further on a gallon of
gasoline. Last year Congress passed the first increase in fuel economy in over
30 years, but we can and should go further. Unfortunately President Bush is
shortchanging the American public with a paltry proposal to implement the
recently-passed law. We should be achieving 60 miles per gallon by 2025. Congress
should also pass a renewable energy standard (RES) that ensures we get 25 % of
our electricity from clean renewable sources. We must also increase funding for
public transportation and implement a national transportation policy that will
reduce costs for consumers and pollution in to the environment. These policies
will lower energy costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and serve as an
important step in the emissions reductions that science says will be necessary
to curb global warming.
Any effort to turn more of our energy future over to the oil
companies that have created this problem is a foolish retread of past failures.
Solving our energy crisis will require a bold new energy policy that reduces
our dependence on dirty fuels, increases our use of clean renewable energy and
uses energy more efficiently.
