OCEANS—Over one hundred citizen activists sent us photos of their vacations on the Oregon Coast, including the one above, with notes asking state leaders to protect the coast. See other coast photos sent by OSPIRG Citizen activists at www.flickr.com/photos/oregoncoast. Photo credit: Jak Green.

The Oregon coast is at risk due to a push by the gas and oil industries to open up areas previously off-limits to offshore exploration and development.

In fact, the energy bill that the president signed on Aug. 5 contains a provision that will weaken the decades-old bipartisan protection of Oregon’s coast—despite Oregon residents’ overwhelming support of such protection.

With more than 120 species of seabirds, 200 species of fish and thousands of Stellar sea lions and grey whales making their homes on or migrating through Oregon’s coast, oil and gas drilling would cause devastating environmental damage. The Santa Barbara, Calif., oil spill of 1971, for example, killed more than 10,000 birds.

The harmful effects of drilling go beyond a spill. A single offshore rig can drill between 50 and 100 wells, dumping thousands of pounds of toxic heavy metals into the ocean. And new technology for extracting previously unreachable gas involves literally strip-mining the ocean fl oor.

An amendment to the federal energy bill authorizes the government to inventory and map oil and gas deposits in all areas currently protected under the moratorium.

It specifically mandates that the inventory process be done through seismic testing. Seismic testing involves sending out sonic booms every 10 to 15 seconds. Studies have shown this process causes deafening noise, harming the marine environment.

In some places, these disturbances have resulted in reductions in commercial fish catches of up to 50 percent and have caused whales to leave their native waters.

With the federal government weakening coastal protections, the focus shifts to Oregon’s elected offi cials. OSPIRG is urging Gov. Ted Kulongoski and state legislators to stand up to the oil and gas industries to make sure they never get a chance to drill or even conduct the inventory called for in the energy bill.

OSPIRG is calling on the governor to pledge to veto any permit requests to drill in Oregon waters and to send a strong message to Washington, D.C., that a seismic inventory off the Oregon coast is not consistent with Oregon’s values and priorities.

Oregonians have a long history of protecting the coast. In 1973, Gov. Tom McCall declared every mile of beach the property of the people of Oregon. Then, following the disastrous oil spill in Santa Barbara, Oregonians enacted a state moratorium on all oil and gas drilling up to three miles from the shore.

However, that state moratorium expired in 1995, leaving Oregon without laws banning drilling in state waters. Without these laws, Oregon’s publicly owned waters are being controlled by federal lawmakers and the whims of oil and gas industry lobbyists.

In response, OSPIRG has stepped up its campaign to protect Oregon’s coast. This summer, citizen outreach staff and volunteers are knocking on doors across the state, enlisting the support of thousands of Oregonians.

And OSPIRG program staff are working to build a broad coalition spanning the political spectrum, including environmentalists and representatives from the fishing and tourism industries.

This summer, by demonstrating widespread support for coastal protections to Oregon’s lawmakers, OSPIRG took the first step toward making sure the coast is protected permanently.