If we don't fight back, oil rigs could be built in New England's waters. Photo: Shutterstock
The president has placed our oceans squarely in his crosshairs. Within just a few months of taking office, Trump pledged to open the Atlantic to oil and gas drilling (unlawfully defying his predecessor’s moratorium on such damaging activity). At the same time, another executive order is actively targeting marine national monuments, including the Atlantic’s only monument, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts. CLF has spent decades successfully fighting off attempts to drill for oil on Georges Bank, New England’s premier fishing grounds, and we’re not stopping now.
Drilling in the North Atlantic Isn’t Worth the Risk
It’s hard to overstate the impact that such rollbacks would have. Since 1977, CLF has led efforts to block offshore drilling in the North Atlantic, particularly in the area of Georges Bank. Our efforts were instrumental in winning drilling moratoria in the legendary fishing grounds through 2012.
We oppose offshore oil drilling for the straightforward reason that a healthy, thriving ocean is worth far more to our region than the fossil fuels that potentially lie beneath the waves. From fishing to recreation to coastal tourism, a healthy ocean contributes more than $17.5 billion to New England’s economy every year.
Drilling for oil destroys key seafloor habitats and disrupts delicate marine ecosystems. It risks oil spills that could shut down the fishing industry, foul our beaches, and kill countless sea birds, fish, seals, and other marine life. The devastating images we all remember from the Exxon Valdez and BP oil spills could appear on New England’s shores. When disasters strike, vulnerable communities are inevitably hit first and hardest.
Not only does drilling threaten fisheries, underwater habitats, and marine wildlife such as the endangered North Atlantic right whale, but it is also the wrong solution to the twin challenges of achieving energy independence and addressing climate change. We can’t drill our way to a solution for either.
With Climate Change Already Impacting Our Waters, Drilling is Simply a Bad Idea
The effects of excessive carbon pollution already threaten New England’s ocean and its wildlife. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 97 percent of the world’s oceans, placing undue stress on the region’s species and habitats. The idea of further assaulting these waters to produce more climate-damaging fossil fuels, while putting a struggling fishing economy at risk, is shortsighted and unsound.
President Trump claims that we’re in an “energy emergency” that requires ramping up fossil fuel production – but we’re already producing record amounts of oil and gas. We don’t need to keep extracting and burning this unsustainable source of energy. If we are to break our country’s addiction to fossil fuels, we need to go boldly down the path of clean energy, like greater efficiency and renewable power from wind and sun.
We’ve already demonstrated such leadership here in New England, where major offshore wind projects are underway despite the Trump administration’s attempts to halt the permitting and leasing for new wind projects.
We don’t need to gamble with New England’s ocean, wildlife, and coastal communities by risking oil spills with drilling. That’s why CLF will be opposing any proposals to re-open our precious waters to drilling, pushing to protect more of our unique seascapes, and fighting to make sure that the protected areas we already have, like the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, remain unscathed.
