Dear President Trump and Secretary Bernhardt:

As businesses that rely on the health of the ocean for our livelihoods, we depend on the continued prosperity of coastal communities that support activities such as, surfing, biking, swimming, and other tourism and recreation-related activities. We have serious concerns with proposals to expand offshore drilling to nearly all U.S. waters and urge you to reverse course.

New offshore drilling threatens over 2.6 million jobs and roughly $180 billion in GDP for only two years’-worth of oil and just over one year’s-worth of gas. We believe risking our clean coast economy for very little offshore oil and gas would be a shortsighted and permanent mistake.

The threat of another catastrophic spill like the 1969 Santa Barbara blowout or the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster is too great to risk thriving coastal economies and healthy ocean resources. Oil spills have far reaching consequences, including enormous economic losses, human health impacts and disturbing effects on marine ecosystems.

Spills also do not recognize state boundaries and spreading slicks could wreak havoc on our marine environment and all our industries that rely on a healthy ocean. Worse, the industrialization required to move, pump and process oil from new offshore drilling would dramatically alter the character of America’s coasts. Adding large scale oil refineries and associated pipelines would transform our beach towns into places forever changed and scattered with drilling infrastructure.

We urge you to reconsider your proposal and the threat it presents to the continued prosperity of our ocean and coast-related industries. Please stand with us and protect our coast from any attempt to expand offshore drilling. When properly managed, our oceans can be a source of sustained prosperity for generations to come.

Sincerely,
Oceana & Surfrider Foundation
Your Business Here

To see a copy of the letter, please follow this link: https://goo.gl/6nSmUY