Obama makes narrow decision

09 Jan Obama makes narrow decision

As he closes out his term, President Obama placed a ban on certain areas of the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern United States, while leaving out the hard sought after permanent ban on seismic testing along the SC, NC and Georgia coasts.

If one studies the decision, one notes that the pressure to act on the Northeast was driven by long term scientific studies that demonstrated that natural habitat for wildlife would be ruined if there was an accident.

The effort to ban seismic testing, where we won a victory in getting the President to remove our pristine waters from the five year plan, was driven by community activism, potential adverse economic and more anecdotal evidence than hard science.

This is no reason to give up,  yet it is a disappointment to the many citizens, businesses and local governments that stood up to push for the ban.

Between this set back and the incoming administration which appears to committed to getting oil and gas from anywhere regardless of the consequences, I believe we can recharged our batteries, recognize that we are in this fight for the long term and must work even harder, engage even more citizens, businesses and government leaders and not be so discouraged that we let down our guard.  We must be vigilant and stay the course in opposition to seismic testing and offshore drilling.  I believe it is worth the fighting hope you do.  Our pristine resources cannot withstand the pressure and we must protect them.

Environmentalists balk at Obama’s exclusion of S.C. coastlines from drilling ban