Senate Dems take on Obama on Atlantic drilling

Six Senate Democrats from the Northeast are taking on the Obama administration with a bill to prevent offshore oil and natural gas drilling on the Atlantic Coast.

The senators introduced their bill on Earth Day, saying that although the Interior Department has only proposed drilling somewhere between Virginia and Georgia, a disastrous spill could spread to their states in a way similar to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

{mosads}“Five years later, Big Oil wants to bring Deepwater Horizon to the Atlantic,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) told reporters Wednesday.

“We refuse to jeopardize the livelihood of our fishermen and everyone whose well-being depends on keeping the Atlantic and our coasts clean and safe.”

The bill’s other original sponsors are Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Cardon (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

“We know that when an incident happens off the coast of one state, it affects the entire region, as we saw in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, all from one oil spill accident in the Gulf,” Booker said.

“And so, the thought of opening up the Atlantic Ocean to this drilling puts an immediate threat to the Atlantic Coast as a whole,” he said.

Their bill, called the Clean Ocean and Safety Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act, mirrors legislation introduced Monday — the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion that kicked off an 87-day oil spill — by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.).

The legislation is a direct response to Interior’s proposal, released in January, to conduct one lease sale in the Atlantic at some point between 2017 and 2022.

“The administration has, in effect, prompted this legislation by issuing its plan,” Blumenthal said.

“The administration rationalizes this decision, saying it was about balance. But the cost of this balance falls inappropriately on our environmental values.”

Menendez said he hopes that introducing the bill would spur the Obama administration to discuss the plan with Senate Democrats and reconsider Atlantic drilling.

“I hope the administration changes course, and I think hearing a collective voice here of a lot of senators were very key assignments on different committees that can make the very crystal clear to the administration changes their course as we move forward,” he said.

— This story was updated at 7:31 p.m.