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Drilling for Oil in the Atlantic and Eastern Gulf: A Dead End Idea Big oil risks offer no relief for Americans Offshore Drilling: Defending the Atlantic and Eastern Gulf

Offshore Drilling in Virginia

Every five years, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) produces a plan for offshore drilling for the country that identifies when and where drilling could take place during those five years.  The current Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program was adopted in 2007 and expires in 2012.  The plan includes an area off Virginia's coast--the only lease sale area along the Atlantic specifically identified in the plan now under review by the MMS.

The proposed Lease Sale 220 area begins 50 miles off the coast and points eastward in a triangle shape about 183 miles, covering approximately 3 million acres. The MMS estimates the area contains 130 million barrels of oil and 1,140 billion cubic feet of gas. At current national rates of consumption, this would supply just six days of oil and 18 days of natural gas.

This relatively small supply of fossil fuel is not worth the extraordinary risk to Virginia's marine environment and coastal communities from chronic contamination of ocean waters associated with drilling, and the piping and processing of oil and gas on land - not to mention the catastrophic impact of potential oil spills.

Communities along the coast and the Chesapeake Bay, which rely largely on tourism, could see their economies suffer as a result of potential development of refineries, pipelines, roads or other onshore infrastructure, as well declining fish and marine species. In 2007, the 18 Virginia cities and counties of the bay and coast brought in approximately $4.25 billion in tourism revenue, according to the Virginia Tourism Corporation. In 2008, Virginia reported $149.5 million in commercial fish landings, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In addition, almost three-quarters of the proposed lease sale overlaps with U.S. Navy and NASA training and testing areas. Oil and gas drilling would interfere with these highly specialized operations upon which our national security, and much of Virginia's economy, depends. The Navy has stated its grave concern about mixing offshore drilling and its operations.

The push to drill offshore distracts public and private investments from a cleaner energy future including energy efficiency measures and offshore wind development.

On May 6, the Department of Interior post-poned for an indefinite period of time the public comment period and scheduled public hearings on the Virginia lease sale pending further investigation of the Gulf oil spill.


Links: 

SELC comment letter (pdf) to MMS on the sale - May 3, 2010

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