Ted Danson: ‘Offshore Drilling is a Bad Idea’
Drilling
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Cristian Hernandez
Boston University Washington News Service
02/11/09
WASHINGTON—Environmental advocates urged lawmakers Wednesday to reinstate the national ban on offshore drilling that Congress had lifted only last fall.
Members of the House Natural Resources Committee were told offshore drilling would cause irreparable damage to oceanic ecosystems and strike an economic blow to the country’s fishing industry.
“Offshore drilling is a bad idea, a horrible idea,” testified actor Ted Danson, a board member of Oceana, an ocean conservancy organization.
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va, the committee chairman, suggested that the drilling ban, which was lifted in the fall after 25 years, would be difficult to reinstate. “That ship may have already sailed,” he said.
The local fishing industry would face challenges if offshore oil exploration were to take place off the coast of New England. “The main issue with offshore drilling is that it puts objects in the water that get in the way of fishing gear,” said Brian Rothschild, co-director of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute.
Environmentalists told lawmakers that offshore drilling would mean “flirting with disaster” because of the potential for oil spills. They also cautioned lawmakers on the danger of changes to marine life ecosystems.
Rothschild said drilling for oil would inevitably change the ecology of the Atlantic Coast through an increase in carbon dioxide emissions that would add to the acidic content of ocean waters.
So, for example, high acid levels could impair the ability of shellfish to grow shells, Rothschild said.
“We would be destroying the bottom of the ocean while fishing the top,” Danson said.
Massachusetts lawmakers, including Rep, Barney Frank, D-4th, have voiced strong opposition to offshore drilling, and last week Rep. Ed Markey, D-7th, introduced legislation that would protect Georges Bank, the enormous Atlantic fishing ground, from oil drilling exploration.
Markey said Georges Bank was a key economic engine for Massachusetts and the region. New Bedford is the most productive fishing port in the country, bringing in a $268 million catch in 2007. The collective catch of New Bedford, Gloucester and Provincetown-Chatham is worth around $350 million annually, Markey said.
The committee hearing came a day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that he was putting on hold offshore drilling plans the Bush Administration had drafted and that he wanted a review of offshore oil and natural gas development before making any decisions on what path to take.
Advocates of offshore drilling say it would create jobs and lessen America’s dependence on foreign oil. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, a member of the committee, called for allowing offshore drilling while looking for alternative, renewable sources of energy.
Philippe Cousteau, a board member of Ocean Conservancy, which calls itself an “advocate for the oceans,” said that if new drilling was to be done it had to be guided by science but that investment in renewable resources would yield longer-term benefits.
“Oil is not the future, renewable energy is the future,” Cousteau said.
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