Offshore seismic testing defeated in court, Ocean City safe for now
OCEAN CITY, Md. -A plan allowing companies to search for oil and gas reserves along the Atlantic Coast is dead in the water.
“Any time that the environment get a win like this in the courts, it’s always cause for celebration,” said Executive Director for Assateague Coastal Trust, Kathy Phillips.
For three years environmentalist groups and coastal towns here on the eastern shore have been fighting to block the Trump administration’s efforts to proceed with seismic testing and offshore drilling in areas along the east coast including Ocean City.
“It’s just an incredibly harmful practice that we really don’t need to be pursuing,” said Phillips.
Following the administration’s initial announcement, five companies applied for Incidental Harassment Authorization permits (IHA’s) that would allow them to begin the seismic air gun testing. But activists argued that this process would hurt both mammals in the water and commercial fisheries here on the shore.
“They are just blasting randomly to determine where they want to drill for oil. It wreaks havoc on migration patterns and potentially even death,” said Vice Chair for the Ocean City Surfrider Foundation, Dr. Malcolm Taylor.
That’s why in 2018, Maryland entered into a lawsuit with a number of other states, environmental groups and municipalities to stop this process. And after years of fighting- a federal judge ruled in their favor forbidding those five companies from engaging in seismic testing. And after November 30th, their IHA’s will expire and cannot be renewed.
“The legislature understands the value of protecting our coasts from an environmental standpoint but also an economic standpoint,” said Dr. Taylor.
And while activists tell 47 ABC it’s good news, they say they need to stay focused.
“This is not the first time they’ve tried to do this, the fight is not over,” said Dr. Taylor.
“We always have to be vigilant and do everything that’s needed to protect our clean beaches in our clean water,” said Phillips.
