Protect Virginia's coasts from oil drilling disasters
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Virginia’s stunning coastline is a national treasure and a critical part of the Commonwealth. It has helped shape our history, our economy and our way of life. Summertime trips to the beach, delicious seafood and a robust tourism industry employing tens of thousands of hardworking Virginians all rely on a protected coastline.
In late April the Trump administration released an Executive Order to undo permanent protections in the Arctic and Pacific oceans and set the stage to allow for more offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and you can bet the Atlantic will be up next.
In Virginia, tourism brings in billions of dollars in local and state tax revenue and provides hundreds of thousands of jobs. In 2016 domestic travelers spent $24 billion on transportation, lodging, food, amusement/recreation, and retail shopping in Virginia generating more than $1.7 billion in tax revenue for state and local governments. Domestic travel expenditures directly supported 230,000 Virginia jobs in 2016 [1] and the travel industry is the fifth largest private employer in Virginia.
Offshore drilling puts economies up and down the East Coast at risk and the negative ramifications threaten not just coastal cities but the state and the region. Coastal Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay are significant economic drivers for the Commonwealth. According to the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VATC) in 2015 [2] three Hampton Roads cities were in the top 10 cities/counties based on tourism expenditures (Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg) and a total of six out of the seven cities in Hampton Roads (Chesapeake, Newport News and Hampton) ranked in the top 20 and Virginia Beach alone, tourism generated $1.4 billion in revenue. That local tourism supported nearly 13,000 jobs [2]. In 2014 restaurant and lodging sales for Virginia Beach generated nearly $1.5 billion. The Coastal Virginia region accounts for 1/5 of Virginia’s total traveler expenditures and jobs from tourism, over 20% of total state tax revenue from tourism, and nearly 35% of all local tax revenue generated by tourism [3].
Our vibrant and lucrative aquaculture industry would also be put at risk by offshore drilling. Virginia is the nation’s third largest producer of marine products with more than 400 million pounds produced in 2015. The dockside value to watermen alone was $199,499,690 million. We also rank as the largest seafood production state on the East Coast [4].
In 2014, the Natural Resources Defense Council ranked 4 stretches of Virginia Beach's coastline near the top of the country's beaches for water quality. Even the smallest incidents due to routine drilling operations would be very damaging to the health of our waters and coastal resources. Offshore drilling would pose a very real threat to our coastal economy that supports so many Virginia families.
On November 30, 2018 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) approved the Trump Administration request for five Incidental Harassment Authorization permits for seismic testing including parts of the Atlantic. These permits will cause irreversible harm to marine animal populations such as the endangered North Atlantic Right whale. The Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management is expected to release final plans for the 2019-2024 Drilling Plan in the near future.
- https://pressroom.virginia.org/tourism-is-an-instant-revenue-generator-in-virginia/
- http://www.vatc.org/uploadedFiles/Research/2015EconomicImpactofDomesticTravelonVirginiaandLocalities.pdf
- http://www.vatc.org/research/economicimpact/
- http://www.virginiaseafood.org/dive-in/about/index.htm