Oil Import Map

When are we going to get serious about cutting off (or at least reducing the size) of those imports? But remember - more offshore oil drilling is (you guessed it) Not the Answer.

See the more detailed, interactive map at http://move.rmi.org/features/oilmap.html

Sherman's Lagoon

Laird Hamilton for Clean Energy

Thanks to our friends at NRDC for this one.

What Were They Thinking?

There's scene in the latest James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace where a female character's nude body is found in a hotel room covered in oil, similar to the famous scene in Goldfinger where a female character's nude body is found covered on gold paint.

I thought of that when I saw this astounding headline:

Florida Tourism Group Endorses Offshore Oil Drilling

Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg! I wonder how many tourists they'll get with black, gooey beaches?

More

Big Oil hurt coast, so why doesn’t it pay for repairs?

Below are excerpts from this article about damage to the Louisiana coast from oil drilling activities.

Verdin, a commercial fisherman, says back then, some places here were so thick with trees you could barely see through them. When the oil industry cut canals into the area to get to its drilling sites, he says, things started changing. He says those canals brought the equivalent of poison into the marsh: salt water from the Gulf of Mexico.

"The water flows in and brings all that salt water," Verdin says.

[....]

"Before oil and gas, even after the main river levees, we were holding our own," Professor Oliver Houck says. "Once we started drilling, we started collapsing."

You can see the damage from the air. You see vast, open waterways that began as canals, sliced into the marsh.

"There are 10,000 miles of those canals through the marshes now," Houck says.

A Bush administration nudge toward opening waters off Virginia for oil and gas leasing is rankling environmentalists, who have begun lobbying President-elect Barack Obama to reinstate an offshore drilling ban lifted by President George W. Bush last summer.

Reinstating the offshore drilling ban would remove the oil drilling debate as a stand alone issue and give Obama leverage to have a more comprehensive debate about energy policy.

If you live or surf on the Outer Banks you should read this!

Read more....

VA, NC, MD, DE, NJ - Do You Want Offshore Oil Drilling?

Public Can Voice Opinions on Oil Drilling off Virginia

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/179/story/315302.html

Offshore drilling for oil in the Atlantic Ocean could happen within 100 miles of New Jersey (and much closer to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina) after the Department of the Interior this week initiated an oil and gas leasing process off the coast of Virginia.

A 45-day window for public comment opened Thursday on the environmental impact of leasing the offshore area for drilling, as well as for general comments and concerns.

The department's Minerals Management Service took the first step in opening waters off the coast of Virginia to offshore drilling for oil. President George W. Bush lifted the ban on offshore drilling in many states in July. Congress allowed the annual moratorium to expire at the end of September.

The mid-Atlantic area has not had a lease sale since 1983, according to a statement from MMS. "This is the first step in a multistep leasing process," MMS spokeswoman Eileen Angelico said. "By putting out this call (for comments), this is not putting out a lease." Angelico said several opportunities for public comment are built into the leasing schedule. When the administration changes in 2009, the new secretary of the interior may choose to drop the leasing process.

Even with a change of administration only a couple of months away, environmental groups are expressing their concern and outrage over the possibility of offshore drilling.

The public comment period ends Dec. 29.

To comment:
For more information about the lease and for mailing information to register a public comment, visit:
www.mms.gov/offshore/220.htm
Public comments can also be e-mailed to sale220@mms.gov.