Join Hands Tomorrow!

Hands Across the Sand in Siesta Key, FL

You don’t have to live on the ocean to value clean waters, beaches and healthy marine ecosystems. That’s why people around the world will join hands on beaches and in cities tomorrow for the second annual “Hands Across the Sand” event, a demonstration of opposition to expanding offshore drilling and support for cleaner energy choices.

Despite the ongoing effects of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, Congress served American coasts to the oil industry on a silver platter last month in a suite of reckless drilling bills. The members of Congress spearheading these assaults on our coasts know that drilling here will not actually lower the price of gas at the pump but only serve to profit Big Oil. Yet they passed bills that would mandate the acceleration of the offshore drilling permitting process and open up new areas to oil and gas drilling, including offshore along the coasts of California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida and even in the Arctic Ocean, where the technology to clean up a spill does not even exist.

Just yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey released a study evaluating science gaps regarding oil and natural gas exploration and development in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off Alaska. According to the report, key information is lacking for effective oil spill risk preparedness, including weather and oceanographic data that could be fed into spill models. They conclude that a better understanding of climate change is needed to clarify development scenarios.

“Hands Across the Sand” participants will show leaders like President Obama the breadth of opposition to new drilling and support for a clean energy future rooted in energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy solutions.

Joining Hands in Olympia, Washington

Dave Rauschkolb, founder of “Hands Across the Sand” said, “Offshore drilling will never be safe. Expanding offshore oil drilling is not the answer; embracing clean energy is. We’re here to say NO to offshore drilling, and YES to clean energy.”

At noon local time tomorrow, people will join hands across the country, from Massachusetts to California. In 2010, more than 100,000 people participated in 1,000 “Hands” events in all 50 states and 43 countries, including India and New Zealand.

Learn more:

Find a Hands Across the Sand event happening near you! Visit http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/

Defenders is fighting to keep dangerous drilling out of American waters. Read about how we’re working to keep illegal drilling operations out of the Gulf of Mexico.