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The Gulf Disaster

As we witness a major environmental disaster unfold in the Gulf of Mexico, it's time for President Obama to stop all new drilling off our nation's shores.

It's hard to overstate the likely ecological damage. Already, as much as 200,000 gallons of oil per day are bubbling up through waters populated with endangered bluefin tuna and sperm whales. The Breton Island National Wildlife Refuge—established 100 years ago by Teddy Roosevelt and home to thousands of brown pelicans—stands right in the oil slick's path. As more oil oozes towards the shore, Louisiana's famed seafood industry—with its fish, shellfish and oysters—will be hit hard as well.

As part of Environment America, we've got an organizer in Louisiana. Find out more, by reading her latest updates.

Brief Summary

The oil lobby would like us to believe that after Katrina and Rita, we can drill our way out of our nation’s energy problems. But we know that opening our shores to drilling would only put our beaches and coastal waters at great risk for a small, short-term supply of oil. and gas.

But as this disaster in the Gulf shows us, the price the environment pays for oil is too high.

We can do better. If we allow offshore drilling, we’d still face a long-term energy crisis while our environment and economy would face new risks due to the pollution and potential for catastrophic spills off our coast.

We need to hold BP accountable.

We need to stop all new offshore drilling.

Oil Rigs: A Risk California’s Coasts Can’t Afford

We've all seen what a spill can do to an entire region's ecosystem, but the drilling business is just messy all around.

Offshore drilling activities, which produce a steady stream of pollution, destroy kelp beds, coral gardens and coastal wetlands. A single offshore rig can drill between 50 and 100 wells, each dumping 25,000 pounds of toxic metals such as lead, chromium and mercury, and potent carcinogens like toluene, benzene and xylene, into the ocean. This pollution from drilling would cause health and reproductive problems for fish and other marine life.

California has also seen the effects of a spill - The infamous oil spill of 1969 spilled 100,000 barrels of oil off the Santa Barbara coast from one of Unocal's offshore platforms. Within days, the spill contaminated 800 square miles of water surface, stretching to the Mexican border. Millions of birds died, and fish stocks were decimated.

We Have Cleaner, Safer Choices

Oil drilling proponents say we have no choice, given rising oil and gas prices. They’re wrong. If our cars and trucks got an average of a couple more miles per gallon, we’d save more oil than exists off the entire coast of California. Yet federal gas mileage standards haven’t significantly changed in 20 years. Instead of allowing oil companies to drill off our coast, Congress should be leading the fight in Washington for better gas mileage and clean energy.