Protect U.S. Waters from New Offshore Drilling
Surfrider is urging President Biden to take executive action to permanently protect U.S. waters
Surfrider Foundation is calling on President Biden to use his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently withdraw the Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico from any future offshore oil and gas leasing.
Please sign the petition, make your voice heard, and encourage the President to take advantage of his extraordinary opportunity!
Surfrider has a long and proud history of defending our coasts from new offshore drilling. For decades, our chapters have fought to stop oil and gas development in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. In 2017, we helped defeat a proposal by the Obama administration to allow drilling off the Mid- and South Atlantic coasts. Four years later, our advocacy compelled the Trump administration to abandon plans for new drilling in over 90% of U.S. waters. These successes have been fueled by the inspired activism of our grassroots network and growing opposition from communities, businesses, Tribes and the public.
Yet, impressive as these victories may be, they underscore a larger problem: Our coasts will never truly be safe until new offshore oil and gas drilling is permanently prohibited by the federal government. That is why Surfrider and our partners are calling on President Biden to use his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish lasting protections for the Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Prohibiting offshore drilling from Maine to Florida is necessary to protect our nation’s marine and coastal environment, communities, businesses, Tribes, and the public.
Please sign our letter to President Biden urging him to prohibit offshore drilling from Maine to Florida. Together, we can help end oil and gas development off our coasts!
Urge Congress to Pass Legislation to Protect our Coasts!
Surfrider is also urging our federal leaders in the House and Senate to pass legislation to permanently ban oil and gas development during the 2023-2024 Congress. Our coasts will never be safe from the threat of offshore drilling under the current 5-year plan process led by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Accordingly, we are working with members of Congress to introduce and pass bills that will protect different regions of the country from this harmful activity.
Several bills have been introduced thus far, including the West Coast Protection Act (S 22/ H.R. 470), which would ban drilling off the West Coast, the COAST Anti-Drilling Act (S. 1851 / H.R. 3116), which would ban drilling off the East Coast, the Florida Coastal Protection Act (H.R.1443) that would protect the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and other waters off Florida, and the Arctic Ocean Protection Act (H.R. 4031) that would protect the Arctic Ocean.
Surfrider also supports the Nonrestrictive Offshore Wind (NOW) Act (HR 4936) to end the requirement that the Department of Interior hold an offshore oil and gas lease sale in the year prior to issuing an offshore wind lease. Requiring new oil and gas leasing as a condition of renewable energy development is bad climate change policy. The NOW Act removes this harmful provision of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Surfrider is determined to pass these and other bills to ensure that U.S. waters will not continue to be vulnerable to new leasing through the 5-year plan process.
Surfrider has a long and proud history of defending U.S. coastlines from new offshore drilling. For decades, our chapters have fought to stop oil and gas development in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. We have also helped build a national coalition of over 400 municipalities, 55,000 businesses, 2,500 elected officials, 500,000 fishing families, and millions of people that demand an end to new offshore drilling. Please join Surfrider in demanding that our federal government end new oil and gas development and advance a clean energy future!
Make Your Voice Heard
Please join us by contacting your federal representatives in support of ending new offshore drilling. Complete our Action Alert or, better yet, call your representatives in the House and Senate today!
Without a massive mobilization by the public, our voice will be drowned out by the lobbying power of Big Oil in Washington, D.C. Let’s protect the places we love and #protectourcoasts!