Salazar Begins Tour of Public Meetings on Offshore Drilling in New Jersey

Secretary Salazar in Atlantic City yesterday. (image: AP via wsj.com)

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was in Atlantic City, NJ yesterday to kick off a series of public meetings on the subject of drilling for oil off of the US coast.   According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, citizens who oppose new drilling projects off the coast of New Jersey made up the vocal majority of the meetings attendees, outnumbering drilling supporters and oil industry representatives.

Opponents agreed that new drilling projects posed too great a risk to New Jersey’s coastal environment and beach tourism industry to be allowed.  Instead, they favored the development of renewable resources.  State Representative Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.), quoted in the New Jersey Star-Ledger, voiced his support for alternative energy at the meeting: “We should not put our shore at risk — and for no good reason. There are great sustainable energy resources — like wind, waves, water currents — and they are here and near to the concentrations of populations along the East Coast,” he said.

Oil industry representatives who spoke at the meeting emphasized the need for domestic oil resources and highlighted the industry’s stellar safety record in recent years.  According to the Journal, a report by Securing America’s Future Energy showed that “the offshore industry produced 10.2 billion barrels of oil between 1985 and 2007 with a spill rate of .001%.”  Nevertheless, most in attendance at the meeting seemed determined to oppose the oil industry, as one group did by holding up dollar bills while pro-drilling speakers had the floor, to show that “money talks.”

Speakers on both sides of the drilling issue also touched on the topic of the jobs that new drilling projects would create.  On this subject, the New Jersey congressional delegation came down on the side of alternative energy projects, authoring a letter to Salazar that stated (according to the Star-Ledger), “renewable resources would create 17 jobs for every $1 million investment compared to 5.5 jobs for that same investment in oil and coal.“

Atlantic City was Salazar’s first stop on his four-city tour to areas that would be affected by offshore drilling.  He will next hold public meetings in New Orleans, Anchorage, Alaska, and San Francisco.