Say No to Offshore Drilling in California and Alaska!

 Your voice is urgently needed right now to prevent the sacrifice of your favorite coastline to dangerous offshore oil drilling impacts. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is holding public hearings on each coast in Atlantic City, New Orleans, Anchorage and San Francisco. These hearings will determine if the Obama Administration allows new offshore oil and gas drilling in our most sensitive coastal waters. Scroll to the bottom of this page to learn more about the proposed plan.

Join Pacific Environment at the public hearings on April 14 in Anchorage or April 16 at University of California-San Francisco's Mission Bay Conference Center or our colleagues in Atlantic City and New Orleans to tell Secretary of the Interior Salazar to say no to offshore drilling. In San Francisco, join us for a noon-time Oceans Voices rally with music, elected officials and concerned citizens.

Meeting dates and locations:

Tuesday, April 14 in Anchorage, AK
Dena'ina Civic & Convention Center
600 W. Seventh Ave
Anchorage, AK

Thursday, April 16 in San Francisco, CA
Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF
Robertson Auditorium
1675 Owens Street
San Francisco, CA
A colorful "Ocean Voices" rally at noon will be held at this same location, please join us for music and fun.

Please take the T-MUNI line or the #10 or 22 bus to UCSF Mission Bay.

Time and testifying 

At each of these locations, doors will open at 8:00 a.m. and the meetings will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a presentation by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.  The hearings will conclude by 8:00 p.m. each evening, with lunch and dinner breaks tentatively scheduled from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. To testify at one of these hearings, please reply directly via email to DOI_Events@ios.doi.gov. You can also sign in to testify upon arrival.

About the proposed plan

The proposed five year plan will open new areas for oil and gas leasing off of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Coast. 130 million acres off the coast of Humboldt, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, and San Diego Counties are in jeopardy of new fouled gigantic oil platforms, increased shipping traffic, the potential for environmentally devastating oil leaks and spills, and the immense addition of underwater noise disruptive to sea life.

Also on the table are millions of acres of pristine areas of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska. Drilling in the fragile and remote waters offshore of Alaska in the Arctic Ocean poses a unique set of problems. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service Environmental Impact Statement on the Chukchi Sea estimates there is a 40% chance of one or more large spills (greater than 1,000 barrels, or about 42,000 gallons of oil). The environmental conditions in this icy region preclude even cursory clean-up efforts; no reliable method exists for cleaning up oil in broken sea ice. Proposals to expand oil and gas exploration in the Arctic and the productive fisheries of Alaska’s Bristol Bay pose unacceptable risks to a system that is already badly stressed by global warming and will just perpetuate our addiction to fossil fuels while further worsening the impact of climate change.

President Obama and his administration will decide the fate of California’s coast and America’s Arctic.  We must send a loud and resounding "no!" to drilling off California or Alaska!