Decision on drilling a big victory, but fight’s not over

The good news is that waters off the Atlantic Seaboard have been removed as potential sites for ocean oil drilling.

The bad news is that the fight isn’t over.

Worse, the fight may never be over.

And worse still, surveys off the Delaware Coast using seismic airguns are still a very real possibility.

Here’s an overview of some of the recent news concerning potential oil drilling off our coast, with some of the information coming from a conference call last week with local citizens and Caroline Wood, Oceana’s campaign organizer in the mid-Atlantic region.

Oceana, an international organization devoted to protecting the world’s oceans, helped lead the fight resulting in the recent Obama administration decision to take Atlantic Ocean drilling off the table - for now.

But that decision only covers the years 2017-22.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could still include Atlantic sites when it begins working on its oil and natural gas leasing program for the years 2023-27. BOEM will begin work on that program in 2020.

Not that it wasn’t a big victory for opponents of offshore drilling.

“No one thought we could win it,” Wood said.

The Obama administration had appeared poised to grant oil and gas leases in the Atlantic, as it had announced last year.

That position changed after pushback from coastal communities and commercial interests. The campaign also received a big assist from the Department of Defense, which said that oil exploration off the East Coast could interfere with naval operations.

I have a feeling that the military’s objections played a huge role in the decision, but Wood was quick to credit the grassroots efforts of Cape Region citizen lobbyists and the coastal towns that passed resolutions against offshore drilling.

Those towns include Milton, Lewes and Rehoboth.

A battle remains, however, on seismic airgun surveys.

There’s been confusion about this issue, with some people concluding that airgun testing was banned along with offshore drilling. But seismic airgun testing comes under a separate permit process, which has continued to move forward.

Wood said there are eight active permits, two of them including waters off Delaware.

BOEM will be releasing the permit applications sometime “near the end of the first quarter,” Wood said.

With the release, Wood said, comes a 30-day comment period. Oceana will be conducting a petition against seismic airgun testing for people to sign, but she said the organization is also seeking thoughtful comments from stakeholders, including coastal residents, fishermen and elected officials.

(Among the people on the conference call was Diane Hanson, mayor of Dewey Beach.)

Another related issue I wondered about was why companies would spend the money to conduct surveys now, if drilling was banned for the next five years. One reason is that surveys of potential Atlantic sites go back 30 years.

New and better information - which could find evidence of larger oil and gas deposits - would strengthen the energy industry’s argument for offshore drilling.

According to National Geographic, estimates for oil and gas deposits off the Atlantic Coast range from 1.3 billion to 5.6 billion barrels.

That sounds like a lot but it’s dwarfed by the estimated 39 billion to 59 billion barrels lying below the Gulf of Mexico seabed.

But a larger estimate for Atlantic Ocean sites would generate a lot more interest - and political pressure - to exploit those resources.

Another source of confusion is the difference between surveying for oil and gas deposits and the similar-sounding assessments needed for beach replenishment and offshore wind power projects.

According to Matt Heim, outreach and communications coordinator for the Assateague Coastal Trust, it’s a comparison between apples and oranges.

Surveys for oil and gas use seismic air guns, which rival the decibel count of a jet engine.

Those surveys might have an impact on as many as 1 million dolphins, he said.

Surveys done for wind and beach replenishment projects might affect 1000.

Another bit of good news was a surprisingly hopeful tweet March 15 from Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

It said, “Next 5-year offshore proposed plan protects the Atlantic for future generations.”

Future generations? That sounds like a long time.

But the five-year plan, by itself, won’t protect the ocean for generations to come.

That will be up to us.


Don Flood is a former newspaper editor living near Lewes. He can be reached at floodpolitics@gmail.com.