Resolution to Block Oil and Gas Exploration &Drilling off Georgia’s Coast Moves Forward

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Environment Georgia

Atlanta, GA–Today the Environmental Quality Subcommittee of the Georgia House of Representatives passed HR 48 a resolution in support of coastal communities and opposed to exploration & drilling for oil and gas off of Georgia’s Coast. The Resolution is in reaction to a draft plan introduced by the Bureau of Ocean & Energy Management (BOEM) that proposed leasing waters off the coast of the Atlantic, including Georgia, to oil and gas companies for exploration and drilling. BOEM is currently drafting a second plan. The Resolution passed after a hastily introduced substitute that favored offshore energy development and downplayed environmental and economic concerns was defeated. It will now need to pass the full House Natural Resources Committee and the full House of Representatives.

Jennette Gayer, Environment Georgia’s Director offered the following statement.

“We applaud the Environmental Quality Subcommittee for their support of HR 48. In an age of remarkable advances in energy conservation and renewable energy technologies, at a time when global warming poses an existential threat to future generations, sacrificing our beaches and ocean wildlife is no longer, if it ever was, the price we must pay for progress. That’s not a world we have to live in anymore. Nor is it the future our children deserve.

Unfortunately, a federal proposal threatens our coast and we need our legislature and Governor Kemp to continue to stand up for the amazing natural resource Georgia has been blessed with. We hope the House will continue to move and pass HR 48 and urge the Senate to do the same with a similar resolution in the Senate (SR 88).”

 

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