Just yesterday (March 3), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar again reiterated his concerns for drilling off Virginia’s coast in 2011. For E&E Daily (only available online with subscription):

The offshore proposal will also address whether to move forward with a lease sale planned for 2011 off Virginia, Salazar said. He added that gathering more information about resources off the Atlantic Coast “is important to do because we have no recent information — it’s 30 years old, and it’s very hard to make decisions without having that information.”

He also said yesterday he would unveil a comprehensive offshore oil and gas drilling plan by the end of this month.

So far over 1,000 Virginians have emailed Sec. Salazar or signed our petition urging him to stop the rush to drill Virginia. Please join us! Click here to send Sec. Salazar an email TODAY!

Join us in drawing a human line in the sand to protest drilling off our Virginia coast. Mark your calendars now for our first Hands Across the Sand Virginia event on Earth Day 2010 (April 22) in Virginia Beach.

What’s at risk and what are the risks should offshore drilling be expanded to Virginia? Join us as we go deep-sea diving for the answers.

Presenters: Eileen Levandoski, Sierra Club; J.R. Tolbert, Environment Virginia; Dr. Carl Hobbs, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)

For more info and to RSVP, call 757-277-8537.

A 14th forged letter from lobbying firm Bonner & Associates was released as part of House Chairman Markey’s (D-MA) investigation in the scandal today. This letter, purporting to be from a local American Legion chapter in Virginia, echoed the same anti-clean energy language found in previous letters forged from groups like the NAACP, a local Hispanic group and Senior Centers and sent to several members of the House of Representatives. Bonner & Associates, who has admitted that a since-fired temporary employee was responsible for the letters, was at the time working on behalf of a contractor hired by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director:
“Despite the coal industry’s ACCCE and Bonner & Associates denouncing these actions and firmly placing blame elsewhere, this newly surfaced letter again reminds us of how dirty politics can get when aimed at defeating clean energy legislation that would benefit all Americans.

“Big Oil and Coal continue to spend millions of dollars opposing any legislation that would bring the U.S. into a clean energy future, create jobs and fight global warming. From lobbyists forging letters to the US Chamber of Commerce calling for a mock trial of science–this lowest of discourse, the misrepresentation of facts, of communities, and of America’s heroes must end.

“In fact, veterans stood up today on Capitol Hill, at the White House and on the airwaves speaking in favor of clean energy as a way to make America more secure.

“Last week the AAUW, National Wildlife Federation, NAACP, Center for American Progress Action Fund and Sierra Club joined forces to help average citizens blow the whistle on deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal tactics being perpetrated by big polluters and their lobbyists to strike down clean energy innovation. The tip line (866-363-4648) launched last Thursday.

“Yesterday, just a week after the nation’s third largest utility, Duke Energy announced it was of the terminating its membership in the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, French giant Alstom power today followed suit. The company, which makes pollution control technologies for coal plants, cited “questions that have been raised about ACCCE’s support for climate legislation” as the reason for leaving.

“And today the Sierra Club will be delivering over a petition of over 30,000 signatures to the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, asking those companies to denounce the Chamber’s attacks on the clean energy jobs bill and the science of global warming, or resign from the group.

“We cannot let our clean energy economy be sacrificed to extreme coal interests that have only their bottom line, not the best interests of the American people, at heart. We need a clean energy jobs bill that benefits everyone, not just coal. We hope that other companies who consider the public interest part of their mission will resign from or at least condemn groups like ACCCE and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for their efforts to kill clean energy jobs.”

As the oil rig blowout near Western Australia enters its 19th day of uncontrolled release of oil into the sea, the extent of the spill is now the size of the State of Connecticut, at approximately 5,800 square miles and growing.

A NASA satellite image of the Timor Sea taken on September 3 reveals the area of slicks and sheen more than doubled in size in just 4 days, from 2,500 sq miles on Aug. 30 to 5,800 sq miles on Sept. 3. Dramatic remote-sensing photographs provided by NASA and other federal agencies are available to view online at http://blog.skytruth.org/.

The Australian government also announced yesterday that it has launched a major investigation into the cause of the blowout and resulting spill.

The West Atlas drilling rig involved in this offshore blowout was built in 2007. The Montara oil platform was constructed in 2008.

Controlling the flow of oil from this rig blowout is expected to take at least seven weeks. Officials estimate that until the spill can be brought under control, between 300 and 400 barrels of oil continue to spill into the ocean each day.

“This so-called modern offshore drilling operation has allowed a tragic oil spill in Australian waters. Even industry’s best available technology cannot stop it for weeks,” said Richard Charter, Co-Chair of the National Outer Continental Shelf Coalition.

“Offshore drilling is risky business. This spill shows what could happen if we open more of America’s coasts to drilling,” said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope.

Last year, the nearly 30-year-old congressional and Presidential ban on offshore drilling in the lower 48 states was lifted. In November 2008, the Bush Administration designated a 2.9 million acre area off the Virginia coast (Lease Sale 220) for oil and gas drilling.

“The scale and duration of this huge spill should be an ongoing lesson to which we in Virginia pay close attention,” said Eileen Levandoski, Hampton Roads organizer with the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “For despite new drilling technology, the risk of spills still exists and even just one spill would levy disastrous impacts on our Virginia coastal economies and environment.”

“The whole world is watching,” said Charter. “We face votes very soon in the Florida and California legislatures, as well as the U.S. Senate, that will determine whether or not this same type of drilling rig will be allowed to operate in long-protected coastal waters here.”