Report | August, 2021
Permanent Protections From Offshore Drilling Benefit Coastal Economies and Help Fight Climate Change
Oceana released new state-based analyses for East and West Coast states detailing the economic benefits of ending new offshore drilling. Specifically, the analysis looks at the latest available data for ocean-dependent jobs and revenue from fishing, tourism, and recreation along the coasts of Atlantic and Pacific states, as well as Florida’s Gulf coast, and compares them to the economically recoverable oil and gas reserves in those states.
The state-based analyses are based on Oceana’s findings in January (Spanish version here), which found that ending new leasing for offshore oil and gas in the United States could prevent over 19 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions as well as more than $720 billion in damages to people, property, and the environment nationally. Additionally, the analysis found that ending new leasing will safeguard the U.S. clean coast economy, which collectively supports around 3.3 million American jobs and $250 billion in GDP through activities like tourism, recreation, and fishing.
- Press Release
- East Coast: Offshore drilling threatens over 1.6 million jobs and about $127 billion in GDP along the East Coast for only seven month’s-worth of oil and six month’s-worth of gas.
- West Coast: Offshore drilling threatens over 830,000 jobs and nearly $70 billion in GDP along the West Coast for only 12 month’s-worth of oil and four month’s-worth of gas.
- Climate Change Analysis
- Fact Sheet References and Sources
- Media Contacts:
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- Austin Matheny-Kawesch, 858.395.5577, amatheny@oceana.org
- Dustin Cranor, 954.348.1314, dcranor@oceana.org
