Statement of Doug O’Malley, Environment New Jersey’s Field Director on Proposals to Open Our Coasts to Off-Shore
Drilling
“Environment New Jersey
is firmly opposed to proposals by President Bush and Senator McCain 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.
Environment New Jersey
wants to thank the bipartisan support from the state’s political leaders who
have opposed this latest attempt to open up off-shore drilling. Governor Jon
Corzine (D), Sen. Bob Menendez (D) and Frank Lautenberg (D) and Rep. Frank
Pallone (D-6) and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8) have led the charge opposing the
move and Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2), Rep. Chris Smith (R-4) and Rep. Jim Saxton
(R-4) have publicly stated their opposition. All major party Congressional
candidates for New Jersey’s two
open seats, including Asw. Linda Stender, Sen. Leonard Lance, Sen. John Adler
and Chris Myers are publicly opposing the measure.
It should be noted that there some New
Jersey political leaders who still don’t get it.
Specifically, Rep. Scott Garrett continues to be out-of-step with his district
in supporting off-shore oil drilling. And former Rep. Dick Zimmer – and current
GOP Senate candidate – said he supported “some drilling” off the JerseyShore and that he wanted “to study
the details.” Zimmer’s statements are short-sighted and out of line for New
Jersey.
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.” And, of course, at risk is New Jersey’s
$16 billion tourist economy, which is dependent on the Shore. Even drilling in
other states like Virginia would
put New Jersey’s beaches at risk.
Just last night, the U.S. Senate voted for the fourth time
this year to extend tax credits to clean energy companies that manufacture
components for solar and wind power. For the fourth time, Sen. Menendez and
Sen. Lautenberg voted for the measure. And for the fourth time, the measure
failed by a handful of votes. The closest attempt came in early February when
the measure failed by a vote, a vote that Sen. McCain missed even though he
flew into Washington on that day.
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 sandy beaches for more oil industry
profits when we have the technology to build cars that go 100 miles per gallon.
Moreover,
off-shore 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 on-shore. 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
New Jersey 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.”
