We’ve all heard that we’re addicted to oil. But in the wake of the BP spill we might do well to take the oil-as-a-drug metaphor a little more seriously. For starters we need to understand that deepwater oil is the really bad stuff, the petrochemical heroin
Windmills NOT Oil Spills!
On Saturday, the nation joined hands to show our leaders that we choose clean energy over dirty, dangerous and outdated energy sources. The gathering in Virginia Beach was especially important because Virginia is poised to become one of the first
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Opinion Column "Conservation: Putting away childish things"
I have an opinion column out today in the University of Maryland newspaper “The Diamondback” about what the ongoing offshore drilling disaster means to us, and a call for the passage of clean energy and climate legislation. Continue reading
The war goes on
The announcement today by President Obama that his administration canceled the lease sale for offshore drilling spots off Virginia’s coast is a big step in the right direction but it’s one battle in the larger war. Until this administration announces a permanent moratorium on offshore drilling we still need to fight. It doesn’t hurt to take a long weekend to celebrate this victory though ;-).
In case you haven’t seen it, check out our press release on the announcement too!
Bayou Farewell and the tragic oil spill
Prior to the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the average American had no idea of the scale and scope of offshore drilling operations.
Wind not Oil!
As the Gulf Coast oil catastrophe quickly grows into one of the largest environmental disasters in United States history, Hampton Roads residents rallied in Virginia Beach today to call for a permanent moratorium on offshore drilling and a renewed focus on developing wind farms off Virginia’s coasts instead.
The Gulf Coast oil spill disaster is a tragic reminder that the price of offshore oil drilling is far too high. A similar spill off Virginia Beach could reach as far south as Cape May and reach into the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay.
Virginia is on track to become the first state on the East Coast to open its shores to offshore oil drilling following Bush-era roll back of moratoriums protecting Atlantic drilling. To demonstrate the risk posed by offshore oil drilling, we staged a mock “oil slick” at Virginia Beach’s oceanfront.
In light of the tremendous safety concerns raised by the Gulf Coast oil spill, the Obama Administration announced Thursday it was suspending hearings on a proposed oil lease sale off Virginia’s coastline. While we are encouraged by this announcement, we urge the Administration to replace the permanent moratorium on offshore oil drilling while re-doubling efforts to develop wind farms off Virginia’s coast instead.
Today’s gathering in Virginia Beach was part of a massive grassroots movement taking place around the country, of communities calling for an end to offshore drilling and the need to move towards a clean energy future. Over 50 protests nationwide are expected this week.
Against a torrent of oil, a trickle of responsibility
Of the many things lacking in the response to the BP spill, responsibility ranks pretty high on the list. From President Obama’s reluctance to reverse his decision to expand offshore drilling, to BP’s shameless attempts to play the innocent victim card, and the far right’s attempts to pin the blame on environmentalists, responsible words and actions have been in short supply. So it’s been refreshing to see at least some public figures attempting to reverse that trend.
In what could be the first inklings of a mounting wave of political push back against the reckless drill-baby-drill mentality, several political leaders from coastal states including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and six US Senators, have spoken out in defense of their states coastlines and common sense by calling on President Obama to reverse his offshore drilling decision.
Among the Senators were Maryland Senators Mikulski and Cardin, who as I noted in an earlier post, wrote a letter to Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman in March calling on the three to keep offshore drilling out of the climate bill they were working on.
That letter was unfortunately ignored, but now that the Senators have a more visible platform from which to trumpet their concerns it’s good to see that they are using it.
Even still, more is needed. Despite recognizing the unacceptable risks posed by a cavalier policy towards offshore drilling, the Senators stopped short of recognizing the unacceptable risks posed by our oil dependence as a whole. Instead they reiterated Obama’s claim “that domestic oil production is an important part of our overall strategy for energy security,” adding that “it must be done responsibly, for the safety of our workers and our environment.”
Responsibility, safety, and energy security are not terms that should be used in the same sentence as the phrase oil production, unless juxtaposed against it. Given the threats of climate change, peak oil, and the thousands of oil-related air pollution deaths that occur every year, it’s hard to see how any policy except a policy to aggressively shift us away from the use of oil, could possibly be considered responsible with respect to the safety of our workers, the general public, our environment or our energy security.
As Grist’s Jonathan Hiskes pointed out last week, there may never be a better opportunity for our political leaders to make this case to the public. We have to demand that they do so. It’s the only responsible thing to do.
Does Gov. McDonnell want black sand beaches in Virginia?
With oil continuing to spew from the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico at a potentially growing rate- the size of the slick has tripled in the past couple of days– many experts are now worried that this spill may affect more than just the gulf coast.
Tragic oil spill = smarter climate bill?
Several weeks before president Obama made the tragic decision to approve expanded offshore drilling, Maryland Senators Cardin and Mikulski joined eight other coastal-state senators on a letter to their colleagues Kerry, Lieberman and Graham pressing the trio to keep expanded offshore drilling out of their now-floundering climate and energy package.
In the letter the Senators warned about the serious threats such drilling posed to their coast lines:
While technological advances have attempted to lower the environmental and economic risks of drilling, experience has shown that no technology is foolproof. Since 1964 offshore operators have had 40 spills of greater than 42,000 gallons