PROTECT YOUR BEACHES FROM OIL SPILLS AND DRILLING RIGS!

The Adriatic IV suffers a gas blowout.

The Obama Administration is developing a new, comprehensive energy development plan for offshore energy resources, including oil and gas drilling and renewable energy (wind, wave, currents). The Obama Administration accepted public comments through September 21, 2009 on the Bush Administration's Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program 2010-2015. This Proposed Program could result in the opening of the East Coast to offshore oil and gas drilling. They received 450,000 comments that they are reading through now.

Raise your voice to protect our vital coastal areas and ocean.

Ocean supporters are urged to comment and speak out against offshore drilling and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) importation facilities and to ensure that renewables are done right. Ocean advocates need to make it clear that offshore drilling puts our environment and local economies at risk:

The nation's shorelines are vacation destinations for millions of Americans each year, and the economic lifeline for coastal communities is fueled by tourism and commercial and recreational fishing.
Currently, there are no oil and gas leases in existence off the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida, for good reason. Studies show that there is not much oil or gas available.
According to a federal agency, the potential oil located somewhere throughout the Atlantic (talk about finding a needle in a haystack) would last just several months, using current national consumption rates. Is this small amount of gas worth risking so much?
Drilling activities create excessive amounts of contaminated drilling muds and waste.
Seismic surveys performed for drilling are significantly harmful to marine mammals.
Nor should we threaten our environment and energy independence by importing LNG.
Our energy policy must be re-directed toward energy conservation and renewables. Projects in the ocean should be done right with responsible siting and management.
Click here for more information visit or call 732-872-0111
The Department of the Interior (DOI) has released a Survey of Available Data on OCS Resources and Identification of Data Gaps available at http://www.doi.gov/ocs/.

STOP THE OIL SLICK OF LIES!

The oil industry is spreading lies about the impacts of drilling for oil and gas in the ocean and the effects of more offshore drilling on the price of gas. We should not sacrifice the ocean.

Citizens must demand that oil companies use the vast amount of resources they already have access to, and demand that the oil industry stop exporting domestic supplies of oil to other countries for higher profits. The US Government’s own Energy Information Administration says the impact on the price of gas from offshore drilling would be “insignificant.”

“Don’t Drill in Our Ocean!”

Why do you love the ocean? Do you surf, swim, fish, dive, or enjoy eating seafood? All of these activities are at risk with oil and gas drilling off New Jersey’s, and our nation’s, coast.

What can you do? It’s easy as 1-2-3!

Write a short letter to the editor of your local newspaper that opposes drilling for oil and gas in the ocean. Write why you support an ocean free of oil rigs and pollution.
Call your US Senator and US Representative and tell them you oppose drilling for oil and gas in the ocean. Call the US Capital Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your US Senator and/or US Representative (if you do not know, provide your zipcode to the operator). Fortunately, New Jersey’s Congressional Delegation (all except for one member – Rep. Garrett, R-5) opposes offshore drilling. Many of New York's Congressional Delegation members have opposed offshore drilling as well.
Tell friends, family, and co-workers the truth about oil and gas drilling.

Your Ocean is Under Attack: Here is the Truth



	A bird covered in oil from a hit-and-run oil spill off the NY/NJ coast in February 2004. Offshore oil and gas drilling puts the marine environment and coastal tourism and fishing industries at risk.

It is a cruel hoax – if you were to believe the oil industry and their congressional cronies, all we’d have to do to lower prices at the pump is to open-up the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts to drilling.
Don’t be fossil fooled! The facts prove differently. Here are just a few facts from a federal government agency source¹:

FACT: The Atlantic Coast contains a total potential of several months of oil and about 1½ years of gas at current US consumption rates – and don’t hold your breath or plan a major purchase with the savings. It will take up to 22 years to tap and get it to the pumps, and will only reduce the price a whopping 5 cents at most.

FACT: The US uses 25% of the world’s oil reserves, but we only have 3% of the reserves, so our supply will never meet our demand.

FACT: Vast amounts of offshore oil and gas sources are already owned by the oil industry, but they have only used 18% of these areas. And get this – the oil industry exported a record-breaking half-billon barrels of US-produced crude and petroleum products last year.
Think of it – sending US product overseas when citizens want it here.

FACT: Oil drilling is a dirty process, discharging millions of gallons of toxic drilling waste-fluids into the ocean and sending piercing noises that impact endangered whales and dolphins.

The truth: the oil industry czars are using the petroleum panic to dupe us into drilling-up our most fragile ocean resources, putting our coastal tourism and fishing industries at grave risk, and threatening our quality of life. All the while, oil companies are pocketing billions of dollars in record profits on the backs of citizens and sitting on their own existing oil and gas supplies that are ready and waiting now!

The real solution: local, state, and federal leaders must focus on helping us implement real energy conservation and alternate energy sources. President Obama is seeking to make great progress in these areas and we must support his actions and make sure they come to fruition.

1 Energy Information Administration