Great work by Rep. Donald McEachin!
Congressman McEachin Introduced the Bipartisan Defend Our Coast Act
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman A. Donald McEachin (VA-04) introduced the bipartisan Defend Our Coast Act at the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s annual conference, Capitol Hill Ocean Week.
Click here to watch the remarks.
Excerpts from Congressman McEachin’s prepared remarks:
“In honor of Ocean Week, I am introducing the Defend Our Coast Act today. My bill would prohibit the Department of the Interior from issuing leases for the exploration, development, or production of oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf in BOEM’s mid-Atlantic planning area. In other words, the Defend Our Coast Act would protect coastal communities in my district, and all along the mid-Atlantic coastline, from the negative impacts of offshore drilling. Prior tragedies, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, have shown that accidents can be dangerous and expensive, and leave us with years of negative ramifications… All of us know how badly we need these protections. We have polluted our water and our air. We have destroyed irreplaceable habitat, and we have driven entire species to extinction. These choices have directly affected our own health and well-being—usually for the worse. Fortunately, we can repair some of the damage. We can work to restore degraded habitat. We can help endangered species recover. We can remediate pollution…. We have a responsibility to care for Creation, to be good stewards of the only Earth we have. But we in this room cannot do it alone. We need our friends and neighbors to share in the work, to share—and help shape—the mission. That means meeting them where they are. It means making the case that environmental protections sustain, rather than hinder, the cultures and customs they cherish. It means listening, really listening, and then finding ways to work with and through the communities that any given policy affects. If we do that—and only if we do that—then we can leave our children a better world.
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The Defend Our Coast Act is a bipartisan bill, introduced with Congressman Walter Jones (NC-03). The bill will prohibit the Department of Interior from issuing leases for the exploration, development or production of oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Mid-Atlantic (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware).
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