In case you missed it somehow, the Department of Interior announced plans just this past week to exponentially expand offshore drilling in coastal waters. The plan targets over 90% of all federal waters for new oil and gas lease sales including the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and the Gulf of Mexico. There is also at least one lease sale proposed for the Oregon/Washington Outer Continental Shelf area.
So we went from a fairly stable federal approach to offshore drilling to level-5 insanity in one news cycle. (That is beginning to sound familiar, no? When crazy becomes normal, how will you know what is crazy?) And to make it even more obvious that public input is not desired, there is only one hearing scheduled in the entire state of Washington where resident voices can be heard. One.
It’s in Tacoma on Monday, February 5th, from 3:00-7:00pm at the Convention Center, 47 St. Helen’s Ave. I’m planning on it. If you don’t go, and if you don’t say something, when the next spill hits our shores, you will remember that you were silent when it mattered.
No pressure.