But now, the current congress plans to drop the yearly ban on offshore oil drilling in federal waters, beyond the three mile limit. Offshore oil leases are to be sold at bargain basement prices to profit the few at the expense of the many. At risk are California, Oregon, most of the East Coast, the Florida Keys, and Alaska's salmon-rich Bristol Bay. The Alaskan Wildlife Refuge will be up for sale, too.
Tired of writing year-after-year? What we need is permanent ocean protection with a National Ocean Sanctuary. It would save us billions of tax dollars that now go to subsidize the oil industry.
It's time to say STOP! to President Clinton and Congress. STOP! funding the Minerals Management Service. That's the bureaucracy that gives our coast away. (A 1985 General Accounting Office report revealed that, in one short year, the Minerals Management Service cost the taxpayers $7 billion.)
We taxpayers actually pay to give away our coasts to offshore oil drilling. It's time to say STOP! subsidizing the oil industry. Instead, reinstate tax credits and funding for energy efficiency and conservation, and solar energy research and development. (Funding has been cut to the bone.) It's a lot cleaner! Demand leadership on this issue from the President and Congress.
As soon as our Group heard of the new offshore oil threat, we started putting up tables here in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, and have collected hundreds of letters protesting offshore oil drilling and asking for permanent ocean protection with a National Ocean Sanctuary.
The tables are so successful that we invite you to do a table here on the coast, or in your own community. We need to flood Washington with phone calls and letters immediately!
If you want a kit and instructions for tabling for the ocean, contact Mary Rose or Judith at (707) 964-2742, the MCEC at (707) 937-0709, or the MEC at (707) 468-1660.
Please send letters to President Clinton, Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congressman Riggs right away. National Ocean Sanctuary, now! Thanks.
Contact:
President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20500
202-456-1111
Fax 202-456-2461
Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3553
Senator Diane Feinstein
331 Hart Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3841
Congressman Frank Riggs
1714 Longworth Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-3311
Napa 707-254-7308
Eureka 707-441-8701
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1995