HOC calls on potus to halt new offshore oil and gas leasing

The Biden Administration is planning for how it will lease offshore federal waters it holds in trust for the American people for the next five years. To do that this, the Administration developed a proposed plan and then released it for input. The Healthy Ocean Coalition and several of its membership submitted our comments on the proposed plan, calling on President Biden to adopt a NO new leasing policy in this upcoming plan. Read our letter below:

Dear Ms. Hammerle:

On behalf of the undersigned Healthy Ocean Coalition members, we urge the Department of the Interior to authorize no new lease sales for its 2023-2028 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Program.

The Healthy Ocean Coalition is a network of ocean, climate, and community advocates. Together, we stand for what we believe in: a healthy and resilient ocean. The HOC believes we are stronger and more influential when we act together to advocate for the immediate change required to mitigate the harm to the ocean's health.

Offshore oil and gas drilling is a source of direct immediate and long-term harm to the ocean’s health. Oil and gas drilling fuels the climate crisis, disproportionately impacts frontline communities and communities of color, and threatens our inland and coastal communities and economies. That is why we write today to urge the Department of Interior (DOI) to not authorize any new lease sales in its 2023-2028 Program.

This is the first time that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has ever entertained a proposed plan that proposes a no new leasing policy option. The HOC urges BOEM and the Department of Interior to utilize this moment to help ensure the United States is walking toward a just transition to decarbonize and mitigate the worst climate impacts. In fact, issuing a final Program without any new oil and gas leases is a necessary element to ensure the Biden Administration and the United States government meet the country’s commitments to the climate emergency. If this Program moves forward with new leases, the U.S. government is condoning the continual sacrifice of frontline communities’ health and wellbeing from decades of continued oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

It is also preposterous to lease more of the ocean to the highest bidding oil and gas company. Right now, companies hold over nine thousand unused leases totaling over 8 million acres of ocean space: a whopping 75% of the total leased acreage of public waters. This, all while oil and gas companies make record profits. Expanding offshore drilling will only allow oil and gas companies to continue stockpiling ocean space, price gouging consumers and raking in obscene profits as the Earth heats and the climate crisis worsens.

We also know that more leasing will not solve the pain people have been feeling at the pump. Even the last federal administration said in its 2018-2023 Draft Proposed Program that production from any new leases would not occur for a decade or more and new leasing “cannot provide resources to quickly mitigate the effects of a national energy emergency, such as a large portion of the world’s oil supply being taken offline.”

The Healthy Ocean Coalition was created a year before the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Over the past thirteen years the HOC has seen a few different leasing programs proposed, edited, and finalized. We are confident that this draft program provides the best opportunity thus far to ensure our nation is walking toward a just transition that ensures both frontline communities can thrive, and we maintain a healthy, resilient ocean.

In closing, DOI and BOEM must adhere to their missions of protecting the nation’s natural resources and upholding environmental responsibility and use its authority to end offshore drilling leasing in this 5-year program.

Sincerely,

Organizational signatories:

Sarah Winter Whelan

Executive Director

Healthy Ocean Coalition

Pete Stauffer

Ocean Protection Manager

Surfrider Foundation

Erica Donnelly-Greenan

Executive Director and Marine Ecologist

Save Our Shores

Michael Gravitz

Director of Policy

Marine Conservation Institute

Casey Darling Kniffin

Advocacy Coordinator, Parent, Marine

Biologist

Florida Oceanographic Society

Guy Jacob

Conservation Chair

Nassau Hiking & Outdoor Club

Emily Parker

Coastal and Marine Scientist

Heal the Bay

Emma Pearson

Conservation Educator

Sea the Change

Brien Weiner

President

South Shore Audubon Society

Queen Quet

Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation

Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition

Queen Quet

Founding Member and Secretary

Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association

Melissa Jung

Program and Outreach Manager

Inland Ocean Coalition

Bill Mott

Executive Director

The Ocean Project

Daniela Huson

VP of Marketing and Communications

Ocean Conservation Research

Individual HOC members:

John Starmer

Scientist & Parent

David Riera

Aquatic Sciences Researcher,

STEM Educator,

LatinX Community Advocate,

& Marine Corp Combat Veteran

Daley Burns

Student