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Rumors are circulating that President Obama might ban drilling in the Arctic, like he already did in the Atlantic, but ignore the Gulf of Mexico -- where over 75 percent of new drilling is actually planned. Donate here to help us mount a defense in the Gulf Coast to Keep Oil in the Ground and ban ALL offshore drilling.
Friend,
We're getting close to the June 16 deadline to deliver all our comments to Obama's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management asking them to ban offshore oil drilling and keep fossil fuels in the ground. But there's a disturbing trend I need your help to address.
It's critically important that we stand with our Gulf allies right now: Rumors are circulating that Barack Obama might ban new drilling in the Arctic.1 That would be a big deal, and an excellent follow-up to the earlier victory getting them to block drilling off the Atlantic Coast for at least 5 years.2 But of the 13 potential oil leases BOEM is planning, 10 are in the Gulf of Mexico, and only three are for the Arctic.3
I can't say this strongly enough - any 5 year plan for offshore drilling that continues to treat the Gulf as a sacrifice zone is unacceptable and simply fails the climate test. And momentum is on our side: Just today 11 Senators lead by Jeff Merkley (D-WA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sent a letter to the Department of Interior calling for them to cancel ALL new offshore leases for the next 5 years.4 But even these staunchest-of-allies in the Senate mention several specific dangers of Arctic drilling, while never once mentioning the Gulf of Mexico or America's third coast.
It's clear we can't #KeepItIntheGround unless we Keep It In the Gulf. And it's equally clear we're not going to win that victory without a lot more outreach, effort, protest and Environmental Action. Can you chip in and help us plan a series of events, protests and -- if necessary -- direct action events to shut down the fossil fuel infrastructure and oil drilling nobody wants to talk about in the Gulf? Your donation will finance the actions we need to keep fossil fuels, all of them, in the ground. Click here to chip in.
The Gulf region has been used as a pollution sacrifice zone for decades. From Keystone XL’s southern leg to new oil and gas export facilities, too often the Gulf of Mexico gets the drilling, spilling and pollution of the oil and gas industry. To add insult to injury, companies like BP, Exxon and Shell can often lease public lands like the ones BOEM is proposing to auction in this plan for as little as $2 an acre.5 And local communities including the United Houma Nation and Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw are on the verge of paying the ultimate price for decades of oil drilling and neglect: their land, their homes and their way of life.6 Enough is Enough!
Click here to chip in $15, $25, or whatever you can afford to help us fight to stop ALL offshore drilling - in the Arctic, in the Gulf, the Atlantic AND the Pacific.
Thanks,
Drew and the Keep it In the Gulf crew at Environmental Action.
PS - Can't donate? No problem. Click here to share on social media or forward the email below.
1 - Samantha Page, Environmentalists Hope Obama And Trudeau’s Arctic Agreement Leads To Ban On Drilling, Think Progress, March 10, 2016
2 - Suzanne Goldenberg, Obama bans oil drilling along Atlantic seaboard, The Guardian, March 15, 2016
3 - BOEM, 2017-2022 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program
4 - Eric Wolff, Andrew Restuccia, Alex Guillén, Annie Snider, and Nick Juliano, MAIL CALL: Dem Senators to Interior: Keep it in the ground, for realz, Politico Morning Energy, June 07, 2016
5 - Rainforest Action network, Public Lands, Private Profits, September 28, 2015
6 - Davenport, Coral and Robertson, Campbell. Resettling the First American 'Climate Refugees.' New York Times. May 3, 2016.
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Rumors are circulating that President Obama might ban drilling in the Arctic, like he already did in the Atlantic, but ignore the Gulf of Mexico -- where over 75 percent of new drilling is actually planned. Sign here to stop it! Sign now to stop them! http://bit.ly/KINGulf
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