Rep. Huffman Statement on DOI’s Proposed Offshore Drilling Plan

July 01, 2022

San Rafael, CA – Today, Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), Chair of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife and member of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, released the following statement in response to the Department of the Interior’s five-year offshore drilling proposal:

“Offshore drilling poses unacceptable risks, and the science and public opinion are clear: we should not put our oceans and fisheries, coastal communities, economies, and planet at risk just to enrich the fossil fuel industry. While Americans are hurting at the pump, Big Oil is hoarding millions of acres of unused leases and capitalizing on the war in Ukraine to gouge customers. Handing over any new leases won’t lower prices by a cent – it will only pad their pockets while fueling the climate crisis,” said Rep. Huffman.

“Although this has fewer leases than proposed under the corrupt, dirty energy funded Trump administration, this is still a step in the wrong direction. Obviously, this administration is far better than the trainwreck of Trump, but that’s not good enough. We cannot settle for fossil fuel business as usual. At a time when climate change is ravaging communities across the globe and the alt-right Supreme Court has begun to strip away the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, adding new leases is outlandish and will further inhibit our ability to reach the climate goals necessary to preserve an inhabitable planet. Hopefully BOEM will wake up to this reality and ultimately release their final plan without any of these ill-advised leases.” 

Rep. Huffman has long been a champion for protecting oceans and coastal communities from oil and gas drilling. He has repeatedly introduced legislation to protect the West Coast and Arctic, most recently the West Coast Ocean Protection Act and the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act.

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