Our nation’s coast has wonderful beaches, parks, marshes, remarkable underwater ecosystems and amazing wildlife, all of which would be threatened by more offshore oil drilling, currently under debate in Washington DC. According to “Oceans Under the Gun: Living Seas or Drilling Seas ?”, a new report released by Environment America and the Sierra Club, clean beaches and oceans support a vibrant coastal tourism and fishing economy that generates almost $200 billion per year, using very conservative estimates that don’t include economic multipliers.
“Our research makes it clear that clean beaches and oceans are worth more than drilling for the last drops of oil. It’s time to protect our coasts from more spilling and drilling,” said Michael Gravitz, Oceans Advocate for Environment America. “Our clean beaches and oceans are the fragile foundation of coastal business and jobs from tourism, commercial fishing and recreational fishing conservatively valued at nearly $200 billion per year,” he added.
The report shows that the annual value of the sustainable economy based on tourism and fishing in the most regions of the country, with the exception of parts of the Gulf of Mexico, is approximately one and a half to twenty times larger than the annual value of oil and gas resources that we might find offshore. In the North Atlantic the ratio is 12 to 1; in the Mid-Atlantic the ratio is almost 4 to 1; in the South Atlantic the ratio is almost 21 to 1; on Florida’s west coast the ratio is almost 1.5 to 1; and on the Pacific coast the ratio is about 3 to 1.
“Right now the only thing some decision makers in Congress and state legislatures across the country are counting is barrels of oil in the ocean, not endangered species, special places or tourism dollars and coastal dependent business,” added Gravitz. “
Over the next few months Congress will decide whether to allow expanded drilling off our coasts as part of the energy and global warming legislation now moving through Congress. The eastern Gulf of Mexico is the area most at risk, but other regions like California, New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast are also threatened by some proposals.
“Our oceans are truly ‘under the gun’, threatened by Big Oil and their allies in Congress who want to expand offshore drilling,” Athan Manuel, Sierra Club Lands Director, concluded.