Statement of Elizabeth Ouzts, State Director
President Bush and others are calling on Congress to open up
our shores to drilling for oil and natural gas. But opening up North
Carolina’s coast to drilling will do nothing to lower
gas prices, and will only damage our Outer Banks and our other beaches.
Drilling for oil off
of our coasts will not lower gas prices in the short term. Even if we began exploring the coast today,
no oil would become available for another seven to ten years.
Drilling for oil off
of our coasts will not lower gas prices in the long term. Oil prices are determined globally, and the United
States is home to only three or four percent
of the world’s oil supply. Other
nations—Germany,
Canada, Japan,
and others—that promote offshore oil drilling don’t have lower gas prices.
Oil companies are utilizing
less than 20% of the access to our shores that they already have. Oil companies have already leased
over 40 million acres on the Outer Continental Shelf in areas not affected by
the moratorium. Yet just over 8 million of
those acres are in production. Indeed,
four times more natural gas is available in areas that are open to drilling
than in those affected by the moratorium.
Drilling for oil off
of North
Carolina’s
coast will harm our beaches and our tourist economy. There is always the risk of a catastrophic
spill. But even if there aren’t
catastrophic spills, oil and natural gas drilling regularly releases carcinogens
and other pollutants into the air and water—harming wildlife and polluting our
beaches. The Outer Banks alone draws
over 5 million visitors each year, fueling a vibrant tourist economy. The success of the tourism industry depends
upon the cleanliness of our beaches.
The real answer to
our oil woes is to use less of it.
That means better fuel efficiency and renewable energy. A serious national commitment to clean energy
will lower energy costs and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, including
tens of thousands here in North Carolina.
