As Californians know, coastal tourism and recreation help drive our local economies. That’s why oil spills have huge economic consequences. According to Oceana, fishing, tourism, and recreation along California’s coastline supports nearly 600,000 jobs and roughly $42.3 billion in economic activity.
We cannot afford to keep putting our environment and coastal economy at risk, especially at a time when we should be transitioning away from fossil fuels. The first and most obvious step toward avoiding the next drilling disaster and protecting our coasts is to ban new offshore drilling. Thousands of jobs in coast-dependent industries like tourism, recreation, and fishing are hanging in the balance.
With this in mind, we have worked to include a provision in the Build Back Better Act, the reconciliation bill currently being debated in Congress, that would end new federal oil and gas leasing off the California coast, and we urge our colleagues in Congress to retain that provision. We have previously led legislation to the same effect, and now it’s time to send this legislation to the president’s desk.
Read more:
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/577445-ban-on-new-offshore-drilling-must-stay-in-the-build