The Proposed 5-Year Offshore Drilling Plan and What it Means for Coastlines Everywhere

Last week, the Trump administration released its long awaited 5 Year Offshore Drilling Plan proposal, which will have disastrous implications for coastal areas across the nation, even along shores and beaches where there are no new leases immediately offshore. Lease sales are planned for areas off of Alaska, California, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Surfrider Foundation has long advocated for no new leases due to the myriad implications for our ocean and coastlines, including direct harm to our ocean ecosystems and potential onshore impacts of oil and gas operations. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has opened a 60-day comment period to gather public feedback on the proposal.

In addition to these explicit harms, what the proposed 5 year plan fails to consider is how new offshore oil and gas drilling will have long term effects along coastlines that are already vulnerable to hazards driven by climate change. These hazards range from extreme rainfall and flash flooding to severe erosion to stronger, more intense hurricanes to drought and wildfires to extreme heat to sunny day flooding. Vulnerability to these hazards is being exposed in coastal and inland areas across the nation, and making headlines for the devastation and destruction being wrought near daily with homes collapsing into the ocean at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, wildfires decimating Los Angeles, and Gulf Coast hurricanes leveling communities by land and by sea, all connected to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. In short, new offshore drilling anywhere is a threat to coastlines everywhere. 

In the textbook definitions for the causes of human-induced climate change are greenhouse gases that trap warm air in the atmosphere. Oil and gas that are drilled and extracted from the ocean floor in the United States are burned, contributing to global warming that then leads to a cascade of consequences for our coastlines and beaches due to warming ocean temperatures. Accelerating sea level rise is one consequence that contributes to greater rates of flooding and erosion along our beaches. Warming oceans mean fuel for stronger, more dangerous hurricanes, and changing precipitation patterns that can contribute to extreme rainfall events or drought and wildfire. Whether it's more flooding on a sunny day, cataclysmic losses to ecosystem and community from a storm or fire, or greater rates of erosion along the beach, human-induced climate change from new offshore oil and gas drilling further increases dangerous hazards to beaches and beachgoers alike. 

The effects of climate change driven hazards are clear, and yet, federal plans are to make them worse with more oil and gas drilling, all the while working to eliminate agency programs and funding that help stave off impacts along our coasts. In tandem with efforts to open up more areas of our ocean to drilling are efforts to weaken and dismantle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Whether through the Coastal Zone Management program, coastal resilience grants, National Marine Sanctuaries, or National Estuarine Research Reserves, NOAA programs are vital to protect and restore coastal habitats and ecosystems and prepare for future coastal hazards. Taken together, these two actions put U.S. coastlines in jeopardy of being lost forever. 

Your community and favorite coastal spot may or may not be on the map for the new 5 year plan, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t feel the impacts of more oil and gas drilling offshore. Your voice is more important than ever in the fight against new leases to protect the future of our coasts everywhere. Take action today and tell the Trump administration #NoNewLeases in Alaska, California, and the Gulf of Mexico, or anywhere. 

You can also take action to defend key NOAA funding and programs for coastal resilience here.