UBCM resolution on offshore oil and gas drilling ignores science, public opinion

September 24, 2004 -

VANCOUVER – B.C.’s municipal leaders are ignoring the wishes of the majority of British Columbians by voting today to support the lifting of the moratorium on oil and gas drilling on the province’s coast, says the David Suzuki Foundation.

 

Today’s UBCM resolution to support lifting of the 32-year-old moratorium was passed despite the lack of meaningful scientific studies or a regulatory framework to protect B.C.’s coast from this high-stakes and potentially devastating industry.

 

“This decision has clearly put narrow business interests before science or public opinion,” says Jay Ritchlin of the David Suzuki Foundation. “Today’s decision was made in spite of the fact that scientific studies have not even been completed.”

 

The majority of British Columbians do not want the moratorium lifted. 59 percent of written submissions and 69 percent of oral submissions to the public review panel this spring were against lifting the moratorium.

 

Oil and gas drilling would put the coast and its communities at enormous risk for negligible economic benefits. Exploratory seismic testing alone has been implicated in fatal whale strandings and damage to fisheries. Exploratory drilling can cause significant damage to the ocean floor.

 

The oil and gas industry in Cook Inlet, Alaska, often cited as a template for B.C., has been fraught with community opposition and constant pollution, while industry infractions of environmental regulations have become the norm.

 

Internationally, B.C.’s eagerness to jump-start this industry is anomalous. The risks of the offshore oil industry in the United States have been recognized with a federal moratorium put in place in 1991 by George Bush Sr., maintained by current President George Bush, and vocally supported by Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.

 

B.C.’s pristine coast – “Canada’s Galapagos” – is one of the last unspoiled coastlines in the world.  It continues to be a global draw for tourists and accounts for up to 9.5 billion dollars in tourism revenue per year. Oil rigs and the ever-present threat of accidents or large-scale disaster would place the tourism industry, the sports fishing industry, the commercial fishery, and B.C.’s pristine ecological environment at significant risk.

 

 “We support Environment Minister Stephane Dion’s statement that science, not politics, should determine the outcome of the oil and gas debate,” says Ritchlin. “As the current science gaps now stand, we are decades away from even the exploration process – with at least 100 million dollars of scientific research yet to be completed.”

 

-30-

For more information contact:

Jay Ritchlin, David Suzuki Foundation

604-721-1536