SC to Rally Against Offshore Drilling at BOEM Meeting 

On Valentine’s Day, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will be holding hearings on Donald Trump’s offshore drilling plan at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Hamilton, NJ. The Sierra Club will hold a people’s meeting starting at 2:30pm to rally against Trump’s offshore drilling plan at the same location. It is important that people come out to the meeting to tell BOEM that we will not tolerate any drilling off of our coast.

“There will be no sweetheart deals for Big Oil. Trump has targeted our coast for offshore drilling. This will have catastrophic impacts to New Jersey’s ecosystem and economy while threatening the safety of people living along the coast. People are angry but there is something they can do about it at BOEM’s meeting next week. It is important that people come out and join us to project our Jersey Shore from Trump’s offshore drilling plan,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We will be rallying to send a clear message to the Trump administration that offshore drilling is not welcome off New Jersey’s coast. We will tell the Whitehouse to keep their hands off of our coast. Come out and tell BOEM that there will be no sweetheart deals! It’s Valentine’s Day for our coast.”

Trump unveiled a plan to hand 90% of America’s coasts over to Big Oil – that means offshore drilling from Maine to Louisiana, and from Alaska down through California. Our waters will be more susceptible to oil spills and catastrophic accidents. This could prevent our ability to build windmills off our coast.

“This disastrous and greedy plan will seriously threaten our $38 billion coastal economy, destroy our ecosystem and fisheries, while harming people who live along the coast. New Jersey’s coastal tourism industry supports nearly 500,000 jobs, and one out of every six of the state’s jobs are linked in some form to its shoreline,” said Tittel. “When you have linguini and clams sauce by the shore you don’t want it to taste like Quaker state.”

Offshore drilling will lead to increased climate impacts, while polluting our air and waterways. Not only is Donald Trump going to open up areas for offshore drilling, he is also eliminating safety rules to protect us from spills. The Trump Administration is also pushing forward with seismic testing that disturbs, injures and kills marine life, harms commercial fisheries, and disrupts coastal.

“We need to stand up to continue to protect our coasts because one quart oil pollutes a million gallons of water so this is a serious threat. The only oil we want on our beaches is sun tan oil. People from all over New Jersey need to show up and tell BOEM we will not tolerate drilling off our coast or any of our coasts. The Trump Administration must pull this rule and stop this dangerous and reckless behavior that can devastate our environment,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We have a choice between oils rigs and windmills, we want wind. We have been fighting drilling for 45 years. We have beaten them before and we will beat them again.”