Defend Our Coasts From Offshore Drilling

Offshore drilling can lead to devastating oil spills that hurt coastal economies and local communities. There is a long, bipartisan history of U.S. presidents protecting our coastlines from the dangers posed by drilling and spilling. In fact, every American president this century has safeguarded our oceans from the dangers of offshore drilling, with the most recent protections covering more than 625 million acres of ocean across much of the U.S. coastline.

But these safeguards are now under attack. There are efforts in Congress to undermine these protections and expand offshore drilling and the inevitable oil spills that come with it. Oceana and our partners have taken the Trump administration to court to uphold these safeguards, because we all know more drilling just means more oil spills.

We simply cannot afford another major oil spill. The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which gushed millions of gallons of toxic oil into our oceans occurred nearly fifteen years ago, yet its impacts remain. This massive spill cost our country billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lost jobs, along with the destruction of coastal communities across the Gulf of Mexico.

But it isn’t just massive oil slicks that impact our coasts — there are constant smaller spills that cause harm wherever there is offshore drilling. The U.S. experienced an average of nearly two spills per day between 2010-2019 alone.

Nearly 40% percent of Americans live in coastal counties that contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every year. Protecting these waters safeguards their livelihoods and saves important American jobs.

Use your voice to tell your lawmakers to stand up to legislative attacks that will put our coastlines and coastal economies at risk!

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