Communities Push Back on Opening Waters for Oil Drilling

Defenders of Wildlife filed comments this week opposing new offshore oil drilling. More than 44 thousand public comments were submitted to the first comment period for the Eleventh National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management uses the program to select waters off U.S. coasts for oil and gas exploration and drilling. Comments came from the public, elected officials and environmental groups.

“Any effort to open these areas to offshore drilling would totally defy nearly every state along our Atlantic and Pacific coasts who have long made their positions against offshore drilling clear,” said Dan Moss, senior government relations representative at Defenders of Wildlife. “Both the East and West Coast Planning Areas are regions of outstanding ecological diversity and vibrant maritime activity, and oil and gas drilling would be catastrophic for these special ecosystems.”

Currently, the Pacific, Atlantic, and Alaska coasts, as well as the Gulf of Mexico are all being considered for future oil and gas leasing. This 45-day comment period gave stakeholders a chance to speak up and make clear the risks that oil and gas development could pose to their communities and ecology, including from oil spills and seismic testing.

Defenders’ comments underline that drilling leases cannot legally be authorized in waters safeguarded by Biden and Trump administration protections or in National Marine Sanctuaries, both of which are currently included with all other coastal waters. Drilling off our coasts also threatens the very survival of endangered and threatened species, including sea otters, Florida manatees, sea turtles, and North Atlantic right whales — to name only a few.

Following Monday’s comment deadline, comments will be reviewed and used to create a proposal for places to sell leases for drilling, which will then be subject to a 60-day comment period.