Pallone: No New Offshore Oil and Gas Lease Sales Along the Jersey Shore

Washington, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) today sent a letter to the Biden Administration requesting that it not include new offshore leasing sales in the 2023-2028 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. Congressional Republicans and multinational oil companies have long sought to use the leasing program to open billions of acres along the Atlantic coast to oil drilling.

The letter was co-led by Pallone and Congressman Member Raúl Grijalva (AZ-03) and signed by five additional Members of Congress, who help lead the fight to block new coastal drilling. The lawmakers highlighted the grave threat that offshore oil and gas drilling poses to marine habitats and wildlife and the devastating effects of fossil fuel emissions on rising sea levels and extreme weather.

“Offshore oil and gas energy development is dangerous. It requires seismic testing at high levels proven by science to harm marine life. The spills it generates, all too common in areas where leasing already occurs, know no boundaries, and cause irreversible damage to ocean ecosystems. We are already working closely with the Biden Administration to protect endangered species, such as the North Atlantic Right Whale in the Atlantic and the Rice’s whale in the Gulf, from known threats stemming from fossil fuel production and other activities,” the lawmakers wrote. “The risks of oil and gas development are compounded when you take into consideration the economic and national security risks of climate change. Our communities are already grappling with sea level rise, extreme storms, heat waves, and wildfires that are caused or worsened by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.”

Pallone is a longtime champion of offshore drilling bans. In March, he introduced the COAST Anti-Drilling Act that would ban offshore drilling in the Atlantic. He also has led the call for a permanent ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling.

A copy of the letter is available here.