While the effects of the BP disaster in the Gulf are likely to be felt well into the future, the company has finally succeeded in capping the largest peacetime oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers passed and Gov. Perdue approved a new law to help protect the state's coast from devastating spills like the one in the Gulf.

Drilling off North Carolina's coast as soon as 2012, however, remains a real possibility. 

On March 31, President Obama announced he was opening the door to drilling off the Outer Banks and in 200 million acres of the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Gulf of Mexico.  In doing so, he also pledged to "protect areas vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security."

Environment North Carolina is working to show the Obama Administration that the Outer Banks fit that bill. 

Take action.  Email the Obama Administration to prevent a catastrophe like the one in the Gulf from happening to the Outer Banks.

For more than 25 years, North Carolina’s Outer Banks were protected from the risks of oil and gas rigs.  But oil companies have spent more than $300 million in advertising and lobbying in the last two years to remove those safeguards, and today they are gone.

Oil companies like ExxonMobil have long wanted to drill off Cape Hatteras-- home to more marine life like sea turtles, whale, and dolphins than many places in the world.  Officials now say ancient deepwater coral reefs off the coast Wilmington may also be targets.

In opening our shores to drilling, President Obama said he would “protect areas vital to tourism, the environment, and our national security.”  The Outer Banks and our deepwater coral reefs fit that bill.  In fact, tourism and fishing are nearly four times as valuable as the oil and gas near our beaches.  

Environment North Carolina is working to protect the Outer Banks and the rest of our shores for future generations.

Resources:

Plans to explore for oil and gas off North Carolina's shores could harm marine life.  Find out more here.

President Obama proposed drilling off the coast of Virginia on the North Carolina border, too close for comfort.  Read more.

This summer, the Obama Administration takes comments on plans to drill in the Mid-Atlantic ocean.