New Economic Analysis Finds Trump Administration's Offshore Drilling Plan Threatens 2.6 Million Jobs and Nearly $180 Billion in GDP

Oceana released a new economic analysis today, which finds that the Trump administration's offshore drilling plan threatens more than 2.6 million jobs and nearly $180 billion in GDP for only two years'-worth of oil and just over one year's-worth of gas at current consumption rates. Specifically, the analysis looks at the latest available data for ocean-dependent jobs and revenue from fishing, tourism and recreation along the coasts of Atlantic and Pacific states, as well as Florida's Gulf coast, and compares them to the undiscovered economically recoverable oil and gas reserves in those states.

"From ocean views scattered with drilling platforms, to the industrialization of our coastal communities, to the unacceptable risk of more BP Deepwater Horizon-like disasters - expanding offshore drilling to new areas threatens thriving coastal economies and booming industries like tourism, recreation and fishing that rely on oil-free beaches and healthy oceans," said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at Oceana. "Coastal communities and states are outraged by this radical plan that threatens to destroy our clean coast economies."

Oceana's analysis is in response to the Trump administration's new draft five-year program (2019-2024) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), which proposes to expand future oil and gas leasing to nearly all U.S. waters, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and eastern Gulf of Mexico. This is the largest number of potential offshore lease sales ever proposed.

"Clean coasts and healthy oceans promise jobs and revenue year after year, but oil and gas are finite resources," said Hoskins. "Coastal communities rely upon a healthy marine environment for their livelihoods and way of life and cannot afford the devastation that comes along with oil spills. It's time for Washington to listen to the local voices that have the most to lose."

As of today, opposition and concern over offshore drilling activities includes:

• Governors of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, California, Oregon and Washington
• More than 200 East and West Coast municipalities
• Over 1,200 local, state and federal bipartisan officials
• East and West Coasts alliances representing over 42,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families, and 1,000 companies, respectively
• New England, South and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils
• Commercial and recreational fishing interests such as Southeastern Fisheries Association, Snook and Gamefish Foundation, Fisheries Survival Fund, Southern Shrimp Alliance, Billfish Foundation and International Game Fish Association
• California Coastal Commission, California Fish and Game Commission and California State Lands Commission
• Department of Defense, NASA, U.S. Air Force and Florida Defense Support Task Force

To access the resources, methodology and state-specific fact sheets, please visit Oceana.org/CleanCoastEconomy.

For more information about Oceana's campaign to stop the expansion of offshore drilling, please click here.

Please use this link to share the release: http://bit.ly/2D7uYOm