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During the 2008 legislative session, oil and gas lobbyists tried to pass a resolution urging protected coastal areas off the Georgia shore be opened for oil and gas exploration. Thanks to the work of Environment Georgia and others, the resolution was defeated, but we don’t expect the oil and gas companies to give up their efforts anytime soon. Read our press release about the victory here.

How You Can Help

No amount of drilling off Georgia’s coast is going to change the fact that our nation only has 3% of the world’s oil reserves, and that we consume 25% of the world’s oil supply.

Help us head off this assault on our coast by e-mailing your representative and our senators today.

Brief Summary

Since 1981, Congress has worked in a bipartisan manner to protect America’s coasts, beaches, and marine ecosystems from the threats of oil and gas development when they adopted the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Moratorium. However, oil and gas companies have recently joined together in efforts to overturn these protections.

Oil and gas exploration could harm coastal tourism. On Georgia's coast alone, at least $1 billion a year in tourism and nature-based business directly depends on a healthy shoreline and productive fish habitat. World renowned tourist destinations at Jekyll, St. Simons, Tybee and Sea Islands would be especially vulnerable to the economic consequences of environmental hazards linked to energy activities offshore.

Furthermore, operations used in oil and gas exploration have been shown to harm marine life and habitat. Seismic surveys rely on loud undersea explosions that have been implicated in the severe declines in commercial fish catches. Or dart core samples may be collected by dropping large hollow metal tubes from ships to vertically puncture the sea floor at chosen intervals.

Given that Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary is located near Sapelo Island, the impacts of oil and gas exploration could be especially detrimental to local marine life.

Lastly, opening these protected areas is unnecessary because the vast majority—80 percent—of the nation’s recoverable gas is located in areas of the outer continental shelf that are already open to drilling, according to a report by the Department of the Interior.