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Every catastrophic oil spill begins with a lease sale ... and President Biden's five-year plan for offshore oil drilling includes proposals for as many as 11 potential offshore leases for oil and gas companies in public waters in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly Alaska.
Risky offshore drilling irreparably harms our coasts, communities, and climate. Just one oil spill would spell catastrophe for beaches, Indigenous and coastal communities, marine wildlife, and fishermen alike.
Industry is already sitting on the rights to drill across 11 million acres of ocean—and only using a quarter of that. And the U.S. is on track to hit all-time records on both oil and gas production this year.
New leasing would do nothing to lower gas prices, as it would take at least five years for oil from new leases to reach the market.
The reality is that leasing our ocean to oil and gas companies will only lock us into the climate-destroying fossil fuels of the past for decades to come — which is exactly what the fossil fuel industry wants — at a time when we need to be rapidly transitioning to 100% clean energy to save our planet.
We need to rally a public outcry before it's too late!
Dear Secretary Haaland & administration officials:
As stewards of our public waters and lands, you have a responsibility to protect our coastlines and the communities and wildlife who rely on pristine, oil-free oceans.
Therefore, I'm highly concerned with your proposal to lease off our coastlines in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly Alaska to risky, dangerous offshore oil drilling.
Just one spill could harm or kill millions of marine creatures, threaten the livelihoods of those of us who live and work along the coasts, and coat entire coastlines with a layer of crude oil that would take years, if not decades, to clean up.
The U.S. is on track to hit all-time records on both oil and gas production this year. Expanded drilling will have NO impact on rising gas prices. And fossil fuel companies have said themselves that they already have the rights to drill on enough land to sustain production for at least ten years.
Leasing our ocean to oil and gas companies will only lock us into the climate-destroying fossil fuels of the past for decades to come at a time when we need to be rapidly transitioning to 100% clean energy to save our planet.
I implore you to scrap the lease sales included in the five-year offshore drilling plan and commit to NO new lease sales instead. Thank you!
have signed.
Let's get to !
