Humpback whale. Captions and Photo source: NOAA Photo Library
Excerpts;
Federal officials have turned down six applications to use airguns to look for undersea sites that might yield oil and natural gas up and down the East Coast, including areas off North Carolina.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the risks to marine life outweigh the potential benefits of seismic surveying along the Outer Continental Shelf, particularly since the Atlantic has been removed from the federal leasing program.
Dozens of coastal towns and counties have passed resolutions objecting to surveying with airguns…
Read Full Article, The Outer Banks Voice (01-06-2017)
Could Seismic Tests Harm Fish? Coastal Review (06-18-2016)
Sonic Sea, Film Documentary; NRDC May 19th, 2016
Oceans are a sonic symphony. Sound is essential to the survival and prosperity of marine life. But man-made ocean noise is threatening this fragile world. “Sonic Sea” is about protecting life in our waters from the destructive effects of oceanic noise pollution…
U.S. Blocks Oil, Gas Drilling in Atlantic Coastal Waters; (03-15-2016)
The Obama administration pulled back its plan to sell new oil and gas leases off the southeast U.S. coast, ceding to environmental concerns and continuing a trend among federal agencies to slow fossil fuels development in an era of climate change. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that the decision was made because many coastal communities oppose oil drilling off their shorelines.
Estimates of offshore drilling’s benefits exaggerated, report says, The Virginian Pilot (12-15-2015)
A report released in December, and prepared for the Southern Environmental Law Center, contends that the potential economic benefits, as cited in a prior report released in 2013 by the American Petroleum Institute, have been exaggerated and don’t take into account the potential loss of jobs in tourism, commercial fishing and other business sectors…
Why U.S. East Coast Should Stay Off-Limits to Oil Drilling, Yale E360 (02-28-2015)
It’s not just the potential for a catastrophic spill that makes the new proposal to open Atlantic Ocean waters to oil exploration such a bad idea. What’s worse is the cumulative impact on coastal ecosystems that an active oil industry would bring…
Don’t Drill Along the East Coast, The New York Times (02-04-2015)
