Today, by a vote of 103 to 57, the state House of
Representatives defeated a resolution that would have encouraged drilling off
the coast of Georgia,
HR 1016. The resolution urged the Mineral Management Service (MMS) to issue a
new plan (usually referred to as a five-year plan) that included oil and gas
leases in Georgia’s
outer continental shelf.
“Oil and gas drilling and production is a dirty and
polluting business, even with the best technology,” said Jennette Gayer, Policy
Advocate with Environment Georgia. “To risk our beaches, marshes, fishing
industry and tourism industry for a small amount of oil and gas was insane.”
According to a 2003 Energy Policy and Conservation Act
report issued by the Department of the Interior, eighty percent of the nation’s
undiscovered, economically recoverable, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) gas is
located in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico, where drilling is currently
already allowed.
“Georgia could
contribute more to our energy crunch by pursuing efficiency and alternative
forms of energy like sustainable biopower, solar and wind,” concluded Gayer.
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For more information view our fact sheet at www.environmentgeorgia.org.
OCS-fact-sheet.doc