Subject: [big campaign] White House Suspends New Drilling as Oil Hits Shore--Sierra Club Oil Spill Action Center
From: David Willett <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:55:33 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

apologies for cross posting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2010

Contact: Kristina Johnson--415.977.5619

White House Suspends New Drilling
Oil Spill Hits Gulf Coast Shoreline

GULF COAST – As oil from a massive Gulf Coast offshore drilling disaster 
began to touch the shoreline, White House senior adviser David Axelrod 
announced on Good Morning America that "no additional drilling has been 
authorized and none will until we find out what happened here." 

In response to the spill, Sierra Club has created an online Oil Spill 
Action Center with updated information, and volunteer sign-ups.  
http://www.sierraclub.org/oilspill

Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune:

We are pleased that the White House is signaling a suspension of any new 
off-shore drilling during the investigation, but there should be no doubt 
left that drilling is too dirty and dangerous for our coasts and the 
people who live there. This offshore facility was supposed to be 
state-of-the-art. We've been assured again and again that the hundreds of 
offshore drilling rigs along our beaches are completely safe. Now, we've 
seen workers tragically killed. We've seen our ocean lit on fire, and now 
we're watching hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic oil seep towards 
wetlands and wildlife habitat.

This same disaster could happen at any one of the hundreds of drilling 
platforms off our coasts, at any moment. It could happen at the drilling 
sites they've proposed opening along the beaches of the Atlantic Coast.

We don't need to pay this price for energy. We have plenty of clean energy 
solutions already in place that will end our dependence on dirty fossil 
fuels, create good, safe jobs, and breathe new life into our economy. We 
can save more oil through simple efficiency measures than could be 
recovered by new drilling on our coastlines.

This disaster changes everything. We have hit rock-bottom in our fossil 
fuel addiction. This tragedy should be a wake up call. It's time to take 
offshore drilling off the table for good. 

Oil Spill Facts:

    * The oil spill exceeds the worst-case scenario predicted by BP when 
it filed its exploration plan with the government. The spill is estimated 
at roughly 210,000 gallons a day. In BP's exploration plan, the company 
outlined a worst-case scenario of 162,000 gallons a day.
    * The disaster may have been prevented by a special shut-off switch, 
but BP did not purchase the switch and after drilling companies questioned 
its cost and effectiveness, the Interior Department's Minerals Management 
Service, which oversees offshore drilling, decided the device wasn't 
needed. [Wall St. Journal 4/30/2010]
    * At its current rate, the spill could surpass by next week the size 
of the 1969 Santa Barbara spill that helped lead to the far-reaching 
moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts
    * Some estimates show it could take 3-4 months to contain the spill. 
By that time, the spill could exceed the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez 
spill in Alaska.
    * 59 Fatalities, More Than 1,300 Injuries, 853 Fires.  There have been 
nearly 60 casualties and more than 1,300 injuries on the rigs in the Gulf 
of Mexico alone since 2001.  “Working in the oil industry is more 
dangerous than working in coal mines.”   [CBS, 4/22/2010]

BP Facts:

    * $5.6 Billion In Profits.  During the first quarter of 2010, “BP said 
its profit rose to $6.08 billion from $2.56 billion during the same period 
of 2009. Excluding the impact of energy prices on unsold inventories as 
well as $49 million of one-time items, and BP would have earned $5.65 
billion, topping consensus estimates by about $900 million.”  Profits 
increased 135% from 2009.  [Bloomberg, 4/27/2010]
    * 41% Raise For BP’s CEO.  “Chief Executive Tony Hayward's total 
remuneration and share awards rose 41% in 2009 on performance bonuses from 
improved operations which made the company one of the best performing oil 
majors in the fourth quarter, despite lower full-year profits due to the 
fall in the oil price.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/5/2010]
    * $16 Million In Lobbying.  BP spent $16 million lobbying in 2009. 
[Opensecrets]
    * $3 Billion In The World's Dirtiest Oil.  Meanwhile the company 
invested $3 billion in 2007 in the dirtiest source of oil on earth: 
Canadian tar sands. “The result will be the development of a major new 
Canadian oil field and the modernization and expansion of the Toledo 
refinery to allow far greater use of Canadian heavy oil and to increase 
clean fuels production by as much as 600,000 gallons a day.”  [Climate 
Progress, 12/18/2007]
    * $900 Million In Alternative Energy Budget Cuts.  In 2009, BP cut its 
alternative energy budget to between $500 million and $1 billion from $1.4 
billion in 2008.  “BP has shut down its alternative energy headquarters in 
London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed 
budget cuts in moves likely to be seen by environmental critics as further 
signs of the oil group moving “back to petroleum.” [The Guardian, 
6/28/2009]

David Willett
Deputy  Director of Communications
Sierra Club
(202) 675-6698 (w)
(202) 491-6919 (m)
[email-masked]
http://www.sierraclub.org

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