Rep. Herrera Beutler joins other lawmakers in opposition to offshore oil drilling

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Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has joined 15 other Pacific Northwest lawmakers in voicing her opposition to a proposal from the Department of the Interior to open up offshore drilling operations along the bulk of Washington and Oregon coasts.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, a ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was integral in assembling a bipartisan opposition group and helped to draft a letter from the 16 lawmakers that was sent to Interior Secretary Zinke prior to a public meeting in Tacoma on Monday. That letter called for Zinke to remove the Washington/Oregon planning area from the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019-2024.

That letter read in part: “We write to express our strong opposition to inclusion of Pacific Northwest waters in the Trump Administration’s National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019-2024. The states of Washington and Oregon have made clear through local, state, and federal action, as well as extensive public comment, that oil and gas lease sales off the Pacific Coast are not in the best interest of our economies or environment.”

The lawmakers contend that expanded oil drilling and exploration operations would put the Pacific Northwest coastline and other sensitive and economically essential environments at risk. Industries and recreation threatened by the prospect of oil spills and other accidents include fishing, shellfish, and tourism industries that are vital to the economies of Washington and Oregon. In Washington alone maritime activity contributes $50 billion dollars to the state economy and supports 191,000 jobs. In Oregon, coastal tourism generates $1.9 billion in revenues and supports over 20,000 jobs.



“There is a reason it has been decades since the waters off the coasts of Washington and Oregon have been considered for oil and gas leasing,” the lawmakers added in the letter to Zinke. “Voluminous existing information documents the lack of oil and gas resources; absence of oil and gas industry interest; strong state and local opposition as expressed through laws, goals and policies of affected states; other uses of the waters to support our coastal economies that conflict with oil and gas activities; and extreme environmental and ecological risks.”

In addition to Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Herrera Beutler, the letter was signed by Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Sen. Jeffrey A. Merkley, D-Oregon, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Oregon, Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Oregon, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Rep. Suzan K. DelBene, D-Wash.