Trump’s Reckless Offshore Oil Gambit Puts Taxpayers, Workers, Environment and Climate at Risk
Jan. 4, 2018
Trump’s Reckless Offshore Oil Gambit Puts Taxpayers, Workers, Environment and Climate at Risk
Statement of Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen’s Energy Program
Today’s announcement by the Trump administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to open nearly all waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to new oil drilling – coinciding with the impending proposal to roll back post-BP Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling safety protections – is the latest reckless decision by an increasingly out-of-touch and irresponsible president.
Expanding offshore oil drilling will not lower gasoline prices for consumers, and it will fail to make America energy independent, as U.S.-produced oil increasingly is exported out of the country. But expanding offshore drilling at the same time as eviscerating post-BP safety rules places workers and our coastal environments at risk. And because oil company liability for accidents remains capped at an absurdly low amount, taxpayers are on the hook for spill-associated costs. Producing more oil – and releasing greenhouse gas emissions when they are burned – at a time when markets are moving toward petroleum alternatives for transportation places our climate at risk.
Public Citizen will work to stop this reckless Trump administration plan.
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