Sierra Club Speaks Out Against Offshore Drilling

Hamilton, NJ- Today the NJ Sierra Club will be holding a people’s meeting with Clean Ocean Action, NJ and other environmental groups to oppose Trump’s offshore drilling proposal.  Trump is proposing to open 90 percent of America’s coastal waters to offshore oil and gas drilling. This would give energy companies access to more than a billion acres off the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic coasts. Under the new plan, the Interior Department would open 25 of 26 regions of the outer continental shelf to drilling. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“We are here to tell Donald Trump hands off the Jersey Shore. We will fight back to stop his reckless and dangerous offshore drilling plan. No oil, no way no how. We will stand up to that Fossil Fool in the Whitehouse and make sure his disastrous and greedy plan does not happen. We have been fighting drilling for 45 we will fight him for another 45 years. Come out and tell BOEM that there will be no sweetheart deal for Big Oil! We want to send Valentine’s to our coast!

“Donald Trump has declared open season on our oceans with his reckless and dangerous drilling plan and we are here to stop him.  This is the biggest give away to Big Oil in U.S history. Donald Trump is selling out our coast from Alaska all the way to Maine while targeting New Jersey. The Administration is more concerned about corporate polluters and pollution than protecting our coast from the devastating impacts of an oil spill.

“Trump is trying to eliminate safety rules and push for seismic testing but we will not stand for this!  Seismic testing not only harasses animals but can cause severe damage and can even lead to mass strandings of mammals and possibly death. Imagine having an underwater fireworks display going off around you 24/7 for 30 days. This is what it would be like for marine mammals, especially whales and dolphins. The Sierra Club has already filed a lawsuit against this senseless proposal that will defend our safety, ecosystem, fisheries, and coastal economies from Trump’s dangerous and greedy actions.

“We are telling Donald Trump hands off our $38 billion coastal economy. New Jersey’s coastal tourism industry supports nearly 500,000 jobs, and one out of every six of the state’s jobs are linked in some form to its shoreline. Visits to the area generate $16.6 billion in wages and add $5.5 billion to the state’s tax coffers. During the summer of 1988 when medical waste washed up onto a 50-mile stretch of New Jersey’s shore, tourism dropped off significantly and the area directly lost at least $1 billion in revenue. An oil spill off the coast of New Jersey could trigger an even more dramatic decline in tourism. When you have linguini and clams sauce by the shore you don’t want it to taste like Quaker state. What is even worse is that the oil and gas being drilled for could be shipped to Europe or Asia. That means the only oil we will see is the oil that will wash up on our beaches from a spill. We need to stand up to continue to protect our coasts and because one quart of oil pollutes a million gallons of water, so this is a serious threat.

“We are here to tell that Fossil Fool in the White House, kill the drill. Instead of offshore drilling, we need safe and renewable energy like wind power. The public needs to come out to the hearings and let them know that we want to kill the drill.  We must stand up to President Trump and tell him the only oil we want to see off our beaches is Coopertone. We have a choice between windmills off our coasts and oil rigs. We choose wind. We have to explore new technologies for wind and wave power and remove obstacles that stand in the way of clean energy. We should be focusing on promoting safe and renewable energy like wind power and not opening up the Atlantic to drilling. We have beaten them before and we will beat them again. New Jersey is not going to stand for this disastrous plan and we will do whatever it takes to stop Trump. There will be no sweetheart deals for Big Oil. Instead, we will be sending a Valentine’s to our Oceans.”