Atlantic seismic surveys dropped

Big news has been popping off so fast and furious these last few weeks that I worry about getting whiplash.

Intersecting our remit; on Sept 27 the President announced that he would extend a ten-year offshore drilling moratorium issued for the Florida and Georgia coasts to South and North Carolina. This raised both my eyebrows a notch. The move was likely a Presidential vote-trawl through the South-East, given that after a campaign we inaugurated in 2015 with our colleagues at Oceana, Sothern Environmental Law Center, and Surfrider (among others), public opinion against offshore oil became overwhelming.

Then just yesterday (Oct. 1), industry announced that it would not renew permits for seismic surveys when they expire at the end of November, which, along with the drilling moratorium, likely postpones these activities for years. This is a reprieve from what has been for me an effort that stated in 2008, when a 30-year offshore oil moratorium was lifted.

Of course I became curious as to why the oilmen weren’t jumping out of their skins on this new turn of events; I’m sure there were discussions in the “Executive Suites” about the balance of harms, and the risk of losing the Whitehouse. I also found in “the fine print,” that the offshore leasing moratorium also applies to offshore wind, so clearly the oilmen got their wrench into the gears on that one.

Nonetheless, a lot can happen in ten years (a lot can happen in ten minutes!) and the arc of fossil fuel is bending downward. It may be that by the time the moratorium on offshore leasing is lifted, the only practical offshore leasing strategy will be for wind farms.