Alex Kaplun, E&E reporter
Left-wing interest groups are launching campaigns to lean on President Obama to reinstate the ban on offshore drilling, and there are signs that the idea is getting increased traction on Capitol Hill. MoveOn.org, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are among the groups using the ever-expanding Gulf of Mexico spill to fight the recent push for increased offshore drilling.
Today, MoveOn.org urged its members to call the White House and ask Obama to reinstate the offshore drilling moratorium that was allowed to expire in 2008. “The spill is already a major environmental and commercial disaster for the Gulf Coast,” MoveOn organizers wrote in an e-mail blast to its membership today. “It’s also a wake up call. The Senate is considering legislation that will promote new offshore oil exploration. President Obama can stop this by reinstating the ban on new offshore drilling. Hearing from Americans coast to coast will send a powerful message that we don’t want new drilling.”
Greenpeace is also using the opportunity to call on Obama to not only reinstate the offshore moratorium but also block Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plans to start drilling in parts of the Arctic this summer. And the Alaska Wilderness League similarly called on the administration to shelve the Arctic drilling, stating that the administration would have a significantly harder time responding to a spill in Alaska than the Gulf of Mexico.
“The risk is too high in the Arctic, especially since the lessons from the Gulf have yet to be learned,” said Alaska Wilderness League Executive Director Cindy Shogan. “Obama must act now on his timeout on all offshore drilling before we sacrifice another one of our precious coasts.”
Friends of the Earth this week also launched its own petition effort, calling on Obama “to focus on investing in clean energy instead of reverting to more drilling,” and has also called on offshore drilling language to be stripped from the climate and energy bill. The group says that thus far, the petition has garnered 18,000 signatures.
The Obama administration today already ordered a freeze on any new offshore drilling until an investigation is complete into the ongoing Deepwater Horizon spill. That, however, has not been good enough for MoveOn and others on the left who want nothing less than the reinstatement of the offshore moratorium that had been on the books for 30 years.
“This spill isn’t just about one accident,” MoveOn wrote. “It’s also a powerful reminder that this country needs an energy policy that breaks our addiction to oil, that invests in clean energy solutions like wind and solar, and that keeps our communities safe.” The groups behind the campaigns largely represent the left flank of the Democratic Party, and many major Washington-based environmental groups have yet to make similar statements. But there are also signs on Capitol Hill that some Democratic lawmakers are moving toward embracing a reinstatement of the moratorium. Four members of New Jersey’s delegation today called for the administration to at the very least reverse the decision to increase drilling along the East Coast. “This catastrophe demonstrates exactly why no new drilling should proceed in any U.S. waters, and certainly not in the Atlantic,” the members wrote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also hinted in his own statement today that the spill will force Congress to take another look at offshore drilling policy. “This terrible event will, undoubtedly, require us to re-examine how we extract our nation’s offshore energy resources and will have to be taken into consideration with any legislation that proposes to open new areas to development,” Reid said.
Special thanks to Richard Charter