From National Geographic:
Today’s arguments being made by the Offshore Oil Industry about proposed new exploration and drilling leases off the Atlantic coast remind me of the Bill Murray movie ‘Groundhog Day’ where everything keeps repeating itself. Their insistence about safer new drilling technologies, tens of thousands of local jobs and how oil is compatible with environmental protection, tourism, fishing and other coastal activities sounds like the exact echo of the arguments we heard in California in the 1980s, the last time the Feds tried to open up large swaths of coastal waters to drilling. Of course these ‘get rich quick at no cost’ claims are as fallacious today as they were 30 years ago. Like the happy ending of Groundhog Day however the growing opposition to proposed lease sales up and down the Atlantic coast also reminds me of the popular uprising that defeated the Reagan Administration’s attempt to drill off the West Coast. It’s all about the love, of the existing beaches and coastlines where people live, work and play.
