Rally Tally: Over 2 million say NO to new offshore drilling

Yesterday, Friends of the Earth was joined at the White House by over a dozen other environmental groups and grassroots community leaders to deliver over 2 million petitions to President Obama that call for no new offshore drilling.

Here’s what’s going on: last year the Obama administration released a draft five-year offshore drilling program for 2017-2022 that proposes 10 new sales of publicly owned oil and gas to fossil fuel empires like BP, Exxon and Shell. The draft program includes 90 percent of the U.S. Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico — which is still recovering from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster — and for the first time ever, portions of the southeast Atlantic along the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Speaker shares her personal account of the negative impacts of offshore drilling.	Friends of the Earth campaigners help deliver 2 million petitions.

We know the impacts of offshore drilling will be devastating to our climate, marine wildlife and coastal communities. Opening new areas to dig up fossil fuels that should remain in the ground is hypocritical to President Obama’s pledge to take urgent action to combat climate disruption. That’s why activists gathered today in front of the White House to deliver a simple message to him: protect our communities, protect our oceans, protect our climate. We need to hold the Obama administration accountable and protect our public offshore areas from fossil fuel empires that seek to turn them into energy sacrifice zones.

Speaker at petition delivery reminds Obama to save the Arctic.	Activists remind Obama to protect our climate, oceans and communities.