Each of states in the Environment America federation has at least several irreplaceable coastal areas and marine ecosystems that would be negatively affected by offshore drilling. Risks from offshore drilling include catastrophic spills from platforms, pipelines, tankers/barges and onshore facilities and of course chronic pollution from produced water. Environment America and its statewide federated organizations:
1. Oppose offshore drilling in areas that were formerly under moratorium. 2. Ask that the administration work to reinstate the drilling moratorium/withdrawals on the east and west coasts that the last administration and Congress removed. 3. Absent a new moratorium, ask the Department of Interior and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to perform a very detailed assessment of marine ecosystems and the biological and economic resources found in our oceans and along our coasts before making any further decisions about fossil fuel exploration, leasing and production in these newly opened areas. This detailed assessment must replace the very crude assessment tools (i.e., the Environmental Sensitivity Index and Primary Productivity) that the Department currently uses in the Five Year Plan which the Circuit Court declared inadequate in its remand of the arctic ocean portion of the existing plan.
