U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th), state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette and ocean advocates Monday to tout a bill that would permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic coast. Booker said there are plenty of reasons to endorse the Coast Anti-Drilling Act, from fighting climate change to protecting the economy.
“Our state is dependent upon the beauty, the clean, the strength, of our oceans and our beaches,” said Booker.
According to Pallone, the legislation faces a tough path in the Republican-led House of Representatives, which passed a separate energy bill, the Lower Energy Costs Act, a month ago by a mostly partisan vote. That measure, said Pallone, “was very much a bill that is a grab bag of oil giveaways and loopholes that endanger our health and safety. And I tried to attach an amendment to HR1 to ban Atlantic drilling, but the Republicans blocked it.”
