“For more than two decades, Congress has said that these fragile areas of the coastline should be protected” from energy development, Morton said. “We see this as the camel’s nose under the tent, as it begins to dismantle previous measures to ban drilling.”

“We’re against it,” said Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman Peter Baker. “The fishing industry has taken severe restrictions over the last 15 years. And the last thing cod stocks need is more disturbance on Georges Bank. Cod is traditionally the backbone of the New England community and economy. It’s short-sighted to do anything to Georges Bank that would delay cod recovery.…Furthermore, the idea that the country is going to drill our way out of the energy problem is short-sighted and really laughable.”

Fragile Coastline
The OCS consists of offshore submerged lands, subsoil and seabed outside state coastal waters and to the seaward extent of federal jurisdiction, generally 200 nautical miles out.

The OCS’s 1.76 billion acres is managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Mineral Management Service (MMS), formed in 1982 to manage offshore energy and minerals, collect and disburse mineral revenues from federal and American Indian lands, and contribute to special use funds. The OCS currently provides 30 percent of oil and 21 percent of natural gas produced domestically, and sand used for coastal restoration.

Offshore minerals exploration and development is divided into 26 planning areas along the East and West coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. Currently, oil and gas production occur on the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and off California and Alaska. The majority of operations — about 4,000 platforms and rigs — occurs in the GOM; there is one platform in Alaska and 23 off California.

Along the East Coast, the OCS is divided into four planning areas: the North Atlantic planning area, with 50 million acres, is offshore Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Mid-Atlantic’s 82 million acres are off Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. The South Atlantic’s 126 million acres are off North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Straits of Florida area is 9 million acres.

Much of OCS Undeveloped OCS leasing began in 1954.
Nearly 30 years later, in 1982, the first of a series of nationwide moratoria was imposed by Congress, many strengthened by presidential withdrawals banning energy development. The first moratorium prohibited leasing off central and northern California.

In 1984, southern California, the North Atlantic, and part of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico were subject to moratoria. In 1990, the North Aleutian Basin, Alaska and the Mid-Atlantic became moratoria areas. Washington/Oregon and the Florida Panhandle area of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico were added to the list in 1991. The South Atlantic was added in 1992. These moratoria are renewed annually, except the North Aleutian Basin, Alaska, which has not been included since 2004.

In 1998, President Clinton issued an executive order preventing the lease of any area under moratorium until June 30, 2012. In addition, he withdrew indefinitely all National Marine Sanctuaries: Washington-Oregon (Olympic Coast); Central California (Cordell Bank, Gulf of Farallones, Monterey Bay); Southern California (Channel Islands); Western Gulf of Mexico (Flower Garden Banks); Straits of Florida (Florida Keys); South Atlantic (Gray’s Reef): Mid-Atlantic (Monitor); and North Atlantic (Stellwagen Bank).

Before moratoria were imposed along the Atlantic, from 1976 to 1983, 47 exploratory wells were drilled. Only five wells off New Jersey discovered hydrocarbons; these were abandoned as non-commercial. In 2000, the Atlantic’s last remaining leases, off North Carolina, were relinquished.

Ten of the exploration wells were drilled on Georges Bank in particular but, according to an MMS report, none encountered significant concentrations of oil or natural gas.

Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), drilling on Georges Bank was stopped in 1982. Since 1988, a leasing moratorium has also been in effect on the Canadian portion of Georges Bank. Seismic activity and petroleum production, mainly natural gas, is ongoing off Nova Scotia.

No Money For Inventory
The new energy bill includes a number of provisions which come under MMS oversight, including incentives for the energy industry to develop existing non-producing leases off Alaska and additional deep water and ultra deep gas production in the Gulf of Mexico; new coastal impact funding for Alaska, Alabama, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas; and the regulation of alternative energy uses of the OCS, such as wind, wave, and solar energy.

Setting off alarms, however, is the provision calling for a comprehensive inventory of oil and natural gas on the OCS, including moratoria areas, through the use of “any available technology, except drilling, but including 3-D seismic surveys.” The first report to Congress is required in six months, which MMS is prepared to pull together from existing data, said public affairs officer Gary Strasburg.

But there’s no money for a new inventory, he said.

American Petroleum Institute public affairs officer Juan Palomo said the money is on the API’s wish list.

“Tremendous advancements” in technology will help the oil industry pinpoint the location and extent of oil and gas reserves, Palomo said.

“We’d prefer that the money be authorized to conduct the inventory,” he said, adding the industry’s environmental record in recent decades has been “extremely good.”

Morton and others said they expect Congress will make the money available during the next appropriation cycle.

“The government is suggesting that seismic testing is not funded,” said CLF counsel Roger Fleming. “But that provides us with absolutely no comfort at all, because it could easily be funded when Congress comes back into session. So we think that just having this language is disturbing, and we’ll investigate legal avenues to have this language removed.”

“I expect in the next appropriation process there will be money to begin this,” Morton said. “I anticipate it will be a big fight in Congress. A number of coastal states are adamantly opposed to an inventory. This brings together Republicans, Democrats and Independents, fishermen, and conservationists, the West Coast and the East Coast.”

Seismic Activity A Threat
Offshore energy development poses considerable risks to the marine environment, said environmentalists. Even seismic testing, they said, can have terrible impacts.

Seismic exploration is the first stage of exploitation, a form of imaging technology that allows producers to “see” oil, gas, and the associated geology. Three-dimensional imaging, today’s leading technology, employs airgun arrays — towed by ships along with hydrophones — which use explosive blasts up to 250 decibels to map subsea rock formations, bouncing sound waves off underground rock structures. By studying the echoes, geologists can calculate depths and outlines of underground formations.

Since 1995, three-dimensional imaging has been used in the Gulf of Mexico, where oil production has, as a result, increased by 50 percent. Methods continue to improve, to detect elusive fractures. In addition to the conventional compression shock wave, the industry and Department of Energy are experimenting with three other major types of shock waves.

According to information from the National OCS Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Greenpeace, the technology, producing sound pulses often audible many tens of miles away, has “major consequences” for marine life.

Recent studies in the U.S. and Norway indicate airguns can cause extensive damage to the inner ears of fish, which use hearing to detect predators, find prey, communicate, and find mates. Airgun blasts have been associated with the disruption of behavior in feeding and migrating whales.

CLF scientist Dr. John Crawford is cautious about the studies’ conclusiveness.

“The honest answer is that there is quite a range of results” depending on the type of fish and the way experiments are done, Crawford said. Some studies show no measurable effect on fish behavior or hearing; others show considerable damage. In some cases, hearing is impaired but only temporarily.

However, he said, national guidelines for underwater sound exposure for marine mammals is set at a maximum of 180 decibels, far lower than an array’s typical 250 decibels; exposure above that level is considered sufficient to disturb the animals behaviorally and possibly cause physiological damage.

Any claim that seismic activity will not be conducted near whales, he said, is questionable.

“How can you be sure they’re not nearby, and what do you mean by ‘nearby?’” he said. Sound travels considerable distance, especially in deep water, he said.

“So there’s real reason to be cautious about this,” he said.

“It seems to us that seismic testing presents a substantial risk to the environment,” said Fleming. “So if you’re going to take that risk and injure the environment, it should be for a very substantial benefit. They should be very sure that what they’re going after is worth the risk.”

Sen. Snowe is also concerned about the potential of seismic activity for disrupting the fisheries, said her assistant, Preston Hartman.

“The concern is that seismic activity would have a negative effect on fish stocks,” he said.

Worth The Risk?
Department of Energy projections anticipate demand for oil will grow by 30 percent and natural gas by 40 percent in the next 10-15 years. By 2025, petroleum products and natural gas are projected to account for almost 65 percent of domestic energy consumption, a slightly larger share than today; domestic production has not kept pace with rising demand. The U.S. today imports 60 percent of the oil demanded and 15 percent of natural gas. The numbers are expected to rise in the coming decades.

Today, production from OCS leases accounts for about 21 percent of the natural gas and 30 percent of the oil produced in the U.S. It is estimated from previous studies that the OCS also holds about 60 percent of remaining oil to be discovered and 57 percent of the remaining natural gas to be discovered in the U.S. — amounting to 76 billion barrels of oil and 406.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are technically recoverable. At the moment, the OCS produces 1.7 million barrels of oil and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.

Most of that production depends on the Gulf of Mexico, which produces nearly 1.6 million barrels of oil and 12.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, with an increasing dependence on deep water regions, and current technology that includes drilling in water more than 10,000 feet deep and to depths of more than 31,700 feet.

MMS periodically assesses the nature and extent of undiscovered OCS natural gas and oil resources, and estimates current discovered reserves.

Every five years, MMS is required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prepare a new plan that specifies the size, timing and location of areas to be considered for federal offshore natural gas and oil leasing.

MMS is currently beginning the development of the next five-year plan for 2007-12. The process provides opportunities for the federal government, states, industry, and other interested parties to participate in steps that may lead to specific lease sales. The current program covers July 2002-July 2007. (MMS must receive comments by Oct. 11. Send comments by mail or Internet: Renee Orr, Minerals Management Service, Room 3120, 381 Elden St., Herndon, Va. 20170; or www.mms.gov/5-year/2007-2012main.htm.)

API’s Palomo said that, even with normal planning avenues and the new bill’s provisions, “more remains to be done to secure adequate supplies of oil and natural gas.…Energy supply remains a big concern. More must be done to open promising areas in the West and off our nation’s shores to provide important new supplies of clean-burning natural gas and oil.”

Others call for a more comprehensive discussion that includes all stakeholders and greater provisions for alternate energy sources.

“The amount of money to be invested in research basically means that in the back of their minds is the intent to put offshore energy facilities out there,” said O’Dell. “We’ve moved into an atmosphere of first come, first served development,” she said. “No one is creating a plan.”

“The bottom line is, we think this is bad,” Fleming said. “And we think that, given how valuable the resource is and the likelihood of success in finding oil, we should be focusing our resources on more productive avenues such as renewable energy and energy efficiencies.”

“This provision in the Energy Bill has dangerous implications for coastal dependent economies like Maine,” said Snowe. “As Chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Fisheries and Coast Guard, I have long fought to protect Maine’s fishing industry and that is why I continue to opposed this provision in the energy bill. It is bad for coastal communities, bad for those ecosystems and bad for our fishermen.”

Cape Cod fisherman Baker said his association is talking with fishermen and conservationists alike — normally disparate interests.

“We may not see eye to eye on fishery management,” Baker said, “but we do see eye to eye on drilling.”