WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, was joined at a press conference by East Coast Senators opposing the reported plan by the Obama administration to open up areas of the Atlantic Coast to offshore oil drilling.
“As we’ve seen, time and time again, oil spills do not respect state boundaries. We are still trying to clean up after the BP oil spill. Everyone from Maryland watermen to small business owners are put at risk by drilling off the Atlantic Coast, and for what? The potential rewards for Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay are not worth the risk of more seismic testing- let alone another calamitous spill. At the end of the day, oil is a dirty and finite resource. We can create jobs, become more energy independent and act on climate change if we break our risky dependence on fossil fuels and look to cleaner alternatives.”
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