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The tired myth of energy security
The oil and gas industry and its allies in government argue that additional offshore leasing in the Gulf is necessary for America’s energy security and economic health. The story doesn’t hold up.
First, oil from new leases could take a decade to hit the market, or 16 years in the case of deepwater areas, so these proposed sales wouldn’t do a thing to ease present-day gas prices.
Second, according to projections from the energy analytics firm OnLocation, even with no new leasing, U.S. oil production would remain robust through 2050, and the amount we export to other countries would continue to increase. How? Because clean energy development, bolstered by investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, is expected to meet more of our domestic energy needs. BOEM’s failure to fully account for the projected clean energy growth in its offshore leasing plan is, in part, why three lease sales from the last five-year leasing period are currently being challenged in court by NRDC and our partners.
A nail in the coffin for marine life
More offshore drilling in the Gulf would also be calamitous for its marine life and the coastal communities that depend on it. Every additional lease increases the risk of a spill, both smaller ones that happen regularly and catastrophic events like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, a disaster that killed nearly a million seabirds, 5,000 marine mammals, and as many as 166,000 juvenile sea turtles. And for the Gulf’s most gravely endangered species—including the endemic Gulf of Mexico whale (also called Rice’s whale), of which a mere 50 or so remain—another big spill could very well be their last. Deepwater Horizon alone caused the whale’s population to plummet by about 20 percent.
“The Gulf of Mexico whale is a poster child for the damage that the oil and gas industry has wrecked in the Gulf and the industry’s complete indifference to the health of the marine environment,” says Michael Jasny, the director of NRDC’s Marine Mammal Protection Project. “In a way, it parallels their disregard for the health of people on the coast too.”
The industry’s destruction does not begin and end with an oil spill, however. Before drilling can even start, oil and gas companies conduct disruptive seismic testing to map out the location of underground oil reserves. The process involves seismic airguns that release intense bursts of compressed air into the water, producing around-the-clock underwater noise pollution for weeks, sometimes months, on end. We may not notice it above the water, but the din disrupts the ability of many marine mammals, especially whales, to communicate, navigate, hunt, mate, and protect their young. Collisions with fast-moving vessels, many servicing the oil and gas industry, are also a leading cause of marine mammal deaths. The Gulf of Mexico whale, which spends much of its time close to the water surface, is particularly vulnerable.
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