With both the Congressional and Presidential moratorium now lifted, the Federal government's Mineral Management Service has initiated the first step for a potential lease sale offshore Virginia. Over 2.9 million acres off Virginia’s coast will soon be available for oil and gas development starting as early as 2011.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Let MMS know that drilling here will not help reduce our dependence our foreign oil, will endanger our oceans and fragile coastal environments, and will hurt our coastal economies.

Say "NO" to Lease Sale 220!

Comments are due by December 29, 2008. Contact MMS today:

Gary Goeke

Minerals Management Service

Gulf of Mexico OCS Region
1201 Elmwood Park Blvd.

New Orleans, LA 70123-2394
Email: sale220@mms.gov

Urge MMS to instead perform a thorough Environmental Impact Statement that fully takes into account the reliance of Virginia’s economy on its coast. Drilling a mere 50 miles off our Virginia coastline not only endangers some of our area's most fragile Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay ecosystems, but it also threatens our robust coastal economy that employs thousands of Virginians and generates millions of dollars of revenue for the Commonwealth.

Risk to Virginia's Tourism Industry:

One large spill that hits beaches during the tourism season can have major economic repercussions. The number of oil and gas industry jobs in states with new drilling would pale by comparison.

Offshore oil and gas operations have detrimental effects onshore. These operations require refineries and other processing facilities, miles of pipelines, roads, storage facilities, tankers all to be built nearby offshore rigs, on our beaches, wetlands, and coastal areas.

Value-add for tourism for Virginia means $16.5 billion and 206,900 jobs.

Risk to Virginia's Fishing Industry:

If commercial and recreational fishing is damaged by chronic or catastrophic offshore spills and pollution, economic damage is also large.

According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Virginia’s fishing industry in 2005, “generated a total of $1.23 billion in output or sales, $717.4 million in value-added or income, and 13,015 full and part-time jobs for the economy of Virginia".

Risk to the Environment:

Offshore drilling, even just exploration for natural gas, means an average of 180,000 gallons per well of waste mud containing toxic metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead each day being dumped into surrounding waters.

Current drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico have destroyed more wetlands than exist between New Jersey and Maine. Coastal wetlands absorb storm energy, thereby reducing hurricane costs. They also provide habitats supporting diverse wildlife and aquatic life that in turn supports valuable game fish. Wetlands also help regulate sediment flow and filter pollutants.

The risk associated with offshore exploration/drilling would affect not just Virginia. Any environmental damage would spread far beyond Virginia's coast, affecting Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware and New Jersey. Offshore drilling can't ethically be exacted on a one-state-only basis. Governors in these states continue to oppose offshore drilling.

Virginia is likely to become increasingly prone to powerful hurricanes, which pose potential risk to the integrity of offshore drilling infrastructure here. While Virginia is not prone to the same scale of hurricanes as hit the Gulf Coast, it should be noted that the U.S. Coast Guard reported that during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita roughly 9 million gallons of oil were spilled. MMS also reported that as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 113 platforms were destroyed and 457 pipelines were damaged.

Risk to National Security:

The U.S. Navy maintains its opposition to offshore drilling. To protect and defend our great country, they must have unfettered access to the Virginia CAPES Operating Area. This is an area where they are daily dropping 1,000 lb. missiles; there are submarines, ships firing guns, and decades of live ordnance existent in our offshore waters. According to a recently released Draft EIS, the Navy plans to increase its activities in this area. NASA also maintains its opposition to the MMS plan off Virginia.

Worth the Risk?:

Just 4 billion barrels is predicted off the Atlantic coast – equates to a mere 200 day (6 months) supply, based on current consumer consumption of 20 million barrels per day. Federal estimates indicate that it is decades before this supply comes online and 2030 before it will have any effect on gas prices.

Contrary to its legislative intent and standing alone on the East Coast, Virginia continues to be enrolled in the Federal program to sell off leasing rights for both oil and gas the moment the moratorium on offshore drilling is lifted. There is no leasing scenario or regulatory framework that would allow development of natural gas and not simultaneously promote the development of offshore oil. Historically, there have been no instances where the industry has not removed both gas and oil before capping a productive well.

Meanwhile, four times more gas and oil is available in areas already open to drilling than in waters protected by the moratorium, and the industry is using only a fraction (18-20%) of what it already has access to. These unused areas could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day, nearly double current domestic oil production.

Save Virginia's Coast: Chill the Drills