Plan ignores climate-friendly benefits of offshore wind
WASHINGTON, DC (April XX, 2019) – The Trump administration today released a plan to expand offshore drilling leases off the the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. The Proposed Five Year Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing Program, issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for 2019-2024, would unnecessarily expose many of America’s coastal communities to the threat of economically devastating oil spills.
The following is a statement from Grant Carlisle, director of advocacy for the national, nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs):
“Offshore drilling exposes our coastal economies to an unacceptable economic risk. Americans knows from Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez and Santa Barbara that any oil spill will decimate millions of coastal jobs in fisheries, tourism and other sectors. Increasing our dependence on oil also undermines our transition to cleaner energy sources.
“Any offshore energy development in America should instead focus on clean, offshore wind, which could generate tens of thousands of new jobs and attract new investments without putting our coastal economies at risk.”
According to E2’s Offshore Wind: Generating Economic Benefits on the East Coast report from August 2018, building just a single average-sized offshore wind farm (352MW) off five Atlantic coast states would could create more than 25,000 jobs and add $3.6 billion to the states’ economies in 2022—while just a month of beach and fishing closures due to an oil spill would cost the five states’ over $2.7 billion in GDP and $1.3 billion in lost wages.
Background:
- The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in an estimated $65 billion in damages and was responsible for nearly 7 months of fishing closures. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-deepwaterhorizon-idUSKBN1F50NL
- The 1969 Santa Barbara offshore oil disaster spewed oil into the Pacific at a rate of 1,000 gallons per hour for a month, causing billions in losses along California’s beaches and fishing grounds. Four decades later, the 2015, Refugio oil spill near Santa Barbara shut down campgrounds and beaches for two months and sent tar balls as far as 100 miles south, costing nearly $100 million in cleanup alone. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-santa-barbara-oil-spill-1969-20150520-htmlstory.html
- The 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska cost $3.8 billion to clean up and caused $300 million in economic damage to commercial fishing. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2010/04/30/7620/oil-spills-by-the-numbers/
- There has never been a place in America where offshore drilling has occurred where there hasn’t been an oil spill.
To speak further on the proposal to expand offshore oil drilling or efforts to increase offshore wind development, please contact Michael Timberlake ([email protected]).
Additional Resources:
- E2: Clean Jobs America 2018
- E2:Offshore Wind: Generating Economic Benefits on the East Coast
- E2 Letter: Comments for the 2019-2024 Draft Proposed National Oil and Gas Leasing Program Docket (275 signatures)
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Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) is a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and professionals from every sector of the economy who advocate for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. Our members have founded or funded more than 2,500 companies, created more than 600,000 jobs, and manage more than $100 billion in venture and private equity capital. For more information, see www.e2.org or follow us on Twitter at @e2org.