Subject: [big campaign] McCain Wants to Rob Georges Bank in Maine
From: "Adam Jentleson (CAPAF)" <[email-masked]>
To: "big campaign" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:01:26 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

McCain Wants to Rob Georges Bank in Maine
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/21/mccain-wants-to-rob-george
s-bank-in-maine/> 

Our guest bloggers are Daniel J. Weiss
<http://www.americanprogressaction.org/aboutus/staff/WeissDaniel.html> ,
a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for
American Progress Action Fund, and Sam Schiller.

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) plans to visit Kennebunkport, Maine to
raise campaign cash. While visiting President and Mrs. George H. W.
Bush, he will be approximately 62 nautical miles from Georges Bank, one
of the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world, due to the
nutrient-laden Atlantic currents and ample sunlight feeding its waters.

This precious area is now threatened by President George W. Bush and
Sen. McCain's proposal to lift the Congressional moratorium on drilling
in the Outer Continental Shelf, first signed into law by President
Reagan in 1981. The current President Bush just ended the presidential
moratorium
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/14/bush-offshore-moratorium/>
on drilling in the OCS first established by his father.

Georges Bank is in the Gulf of Maine, and is an area the size of
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island combined. It is rich with
marine life. It also plays a critical role in Maine's economy. Even with
the decline of the cod population, Georges Bank still supported 26,000
jobs and had an $860 million dollar impact on the state's economy in
2001. Landed fish were worth $363 million in 2007.

Other Maine industries also depend on a healthy, clean Georges Bank.
Beach visits brought up to $323 million to Maine's economy in 2005.
Recreational fishing brought up to $297 million that same year. Tourism
and recreation employed 86,000 people.

In 1987, a House of Representatives investigation concluded that
drilling there made no sense
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytim
es.com%2Fgst%2Ffullpage.html%3Fres%3D9B0DEFDD1F3CF936A25752C1A961948260&
ei=cYiESM-xGZe08wSXm5w2&usg=AFQjCNGQpL8F0xL5G0Yedv3Q3wGC39nUdQ&sig2=3HHq
H3Jg7lLVpgPw1JpUWw>  due to the "ecological sensitivity of Georges Bank
and the extraordinary productivity of the Georges Bank fishery."

It has long been a target of big oil since it contains an estimated 8
percent of the United States' offshore oil and gas reserves. Drilling
could occur there if Sen. McCain prevails and the Congressional OCS
Moratorium is lifted.

This move is opposed by Maine Governor John Baldacci and its entire
Congressional delegation. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) - a McCain ally -
said that drilling in Georges Bank "would harm our fishing industry
<http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5167098.html> , which
is already struggling." 

Sen. McCain has repeatedly and falsely asserted that oil and gas
drilling is a benign process that has little impact on the ocean or the
shore. As recently as Friday July 18th, McCain claimed that oil "rigs
have survived, very successfully
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/18/mccain-rigs/> , the
impacts of hurricanes - Hurricane Katrina as far as Louisiana is
concerned." In fact, Katrina and Rita caused nearly 600 different oil
spills
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/19/mccain-katrina-spills/> .
Some estimate that Katrina spilled a total of 9 million gallons - about
equal to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.

Oil and gas drilling contaminates local waters even without catastrophic
events such as a Category 5 hurricane. Drilling rigs discharge thousands
of pounds of toxic chemicals into the ocean, including lead, mercury,
and benzene. There are mercury "hot spots"
<http://www.theharbinger.org/xvii/990223/tsang.html>  in Mobile Bay from
offshore oil platforms.

Such contamination could be particularly harmful in a fragile ecosystem
such as Georges Bank. The Conservation Law Foundation reported
<http://www.clf.org/programs/cases.asp?id=809> :

	Critically, those same conditions that make Georges Bank so
biologically remarkable also place it at high risk from pollution,
chemical spills or other human error. Pollutants that found their way
onto Georges Bank would be spread by the gyre relentlessly around the
Bank and would damage or kill the larvae, juveniles, fish and mammals
entrained in that gyre. The fish that lay their eggs on the bottom,
bottom-dwelling juvenile fish, and bottom feeding fishes, like cod or
haddock, would be equally at risk to pollutants that settled out of the
water column and onto the bottom habitats of the bank.

John McCain heads to Walkers Point today to collect bags of money at a
fundraiser hosted by Bush senior. And he leaves behind Bush junior and
his offshore drilling proposal that would rob Georges Bank of its
biological life, while threatening an essential part of Maine's economy
and identity.

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