Nix of offshore drilling draws mixed reviews

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is reversing it’s decision to open up the Atlantic for offshore drilling. A decision that has drawn praise from many in coastal cities, but scorn from those in big oil.

“This is just a huge win,” said Matt Heim of the Assateague Coastal Trust.  Heim spent more than a year traveling up and down Delmarva speaking in coastal cities about the dangers it could bring.

“One of the biggest things was the citizen outcry, the voice of opposition that came from coastal communities, over 106 coastal towns passed resolutions opposing offshore drilling and those towns were from Florida all the way into the northeast,” Heim said.

The decision from the Obama administration, is also garnering cheers from the fishing community, who feared the seismic testing that comes before drilling, as well as the potential for oil spills during drilling.

“I think for the most part the fishing community’s happy that they’re not going to do it, you know just about everybody that I’ve talked to just doesn’t want drill out in the Atlantic, off the coast,” said Rich King, owner of delaware-surf-fishing.com.

Even though drilling is off the table for the next five years, the seismic testing, may not be.

Companies looking to drill after that five year period expires might still want to do tests, which involves air guns fired down into the ocean from the surface at 250 decibels, which is double the volume of a rock concert.

Opponents are concerned it could disturb sea life to the point of forced migration., as well as be a nuisance to humans.

“Our hopes are that since the leasing program has been taken off the table,since there’s going to be no drilling in the Atlantic that there wont be any interest in the seismic surveys as well,” Heim said.

However,  not all see this decision as reason for celebration, in a statement to 47 ABC Shell Oil calls the decision quote “short sighted and dismissive of the safe, responsible offshore exploration that has provided jobs, revenue and energy security for the U.S. for more than a half century.”

In 2020 another lease can be proposed to begin offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.