Tell Our Senators to Protect Marine Wildlife from Offshore Drilling

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

We have a chance to protect sea otters, harbor seals and other marine wildlife from offshore drilling — for good.

In September, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would block dirty, destructive drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and now it’s the Senate’s turn.¹

Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=34778 to tell Sens. Patrick J. Toomey and Robert P. Casey: Protect our marine wildlife from offshore drilling.

Here’s the unavoidable truth about offshore drilling, which history has proven time and again: When you drill, you spill.

In the last 12 years alone, there have been thousands of offshore explosions, collisions and spills.²

For marine wildlife, those spills can be a death sentence. Mammals such as otters and polar bears can suffer from hypothermia when oil coats their fur. When they try to clean off the oil by licking their fur, they risk damage to their internal organs.³ Oil has also been found to cause respiratory problems in whales and dolphins and organ damage in sea turtles.^4,5

The Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act (HR 1941) aims to prevent these kinds of tragedies. It would block the Trump administration — or any future administration — from granting any oil and gas drilling leases off the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. The House passed the bill with bipartisan support, and now it heads to the Senate.⁶ But the Senate won’t make it a priority unless they hear from people like you.

Tell our senators to block drilling off our coasts.

To harm or kill marine wildlife just so we can squeeze a little more oil out of the ocean would be wrong under any circumstances — but in a time when clean, renewable energy is more accessible than ever, it’s unconscionable.

1. “H.R.1941 – Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act,” Congress.gov, accessed September 25, 2019.
2. “Offshore Incident Statistics,” Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, accessed September 25, 2019.
3. Roger Helm, Daniel Costa, Terry DeBruyn, Thomas O’Shea, Randall Wells and Terrie Williams, “Overview of Effects of Oil Spills on Marine Mammals,” ResearchGate, February 2015.
4. Roger Helm, Daniel Costa, Terry DeBruyn, Thomas O’Shea, Randall Wells and Terrie Williams, “Overview of Effects of Oil Spills on Marine Mammals,” ResearchGate, February 2015.
5. “How Do Oil Spills Affect Sea Turtles?,” NOAA Office of Response and Restoration, June 16, 2016.
6. “H.R.1941 – Coastal and Marine Economies Protection Act,” Congress.gov, accessed September 25, 2019.