Keep Offshore Drilling Out of Climate Change Legislation

  • by: Oceana
  • recipient: President Obama
In an effort to pass his climate change bill, Senator Kerry has mentioned he would be willing to accept offshore drilling in previously protected areas in a race for 60 supporting votes. Unfortunately, if Congress follows through on its threat to expand drilling, the climate bill may be so weakened by compromise that it does more harm than good.

Even though Big Oil likes to brag about its new "safe and clean" drilling technology, accidents still happen. A brand new rig in the Timor Sea dumped millions of gallons of oil off the Australian coast for more than 70 days, putting marine wildlife and local residents at risk.

Tell President Obama that more offshore drilling has no place in climate legislation and ask him to send the message to Congress that he will not accept a climate package which perpetuates our addiction to fossil fuels and sacrifices our oceans.
Dear President Obama,

I am writing today to urge you to protect our oceans and coasts from offshore oil drilling. While we need to control climate change, expanding offshore drilling is not the way to do it. Healthy, productive oceans should not be sacrificed for a climate bill. Drilling will lead only to more carbon dioxide emissions and more climate change which fuels ocean acidification. There is a better solution.

For more than 25 years, the United States has protected our coasts by keeping much of our offshore waters out of the hands of the oil companies. Last year, these protections were unfortunately allowed to lapse. Now it is up to you to ensure that our vital marine resources are managed responsibly and that no new areas are opened to offshore drilling.

[Your comment here]

With drilling, spills and environmental catastrophes are bound to occur. One brand new oil drilling platform in the Timor Sea gushed millions of gallons of oil into the ocean over the course of more than 70 days before finally being capped just this week. If this spill occurred in United States waters, it could devastate our fisheries, ocean wildlife and coastal tourism. Energy and climate legislation is intended to decrease pollution in our air, but should not pollute our oceans in the process. I strongly urge you not to support any legislation that threatens our coasts with expanded offshore drilling. A climate bill should bolster clean, renewable energy, not expand dirty oil drilling.

Please urge the Congress to pass a climate bill that does not expand oil drilling.
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