Proceeds from this benefit reception will help us promote HANDS ACROSS THE SAND, a protest rally against Virginia offshore drilling. On Sat., June 26, starting at 11am, join Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, and Oceana in lining up along the shoreline along the Virginia Beach Oceanfront between 19th and 31st Streets and lock hands for 15 minutes in protest to offshore drilling. For more information and to sign up, go to HandsAcrossTheSand.com.

This forum will discuss what our local communities are doing to reduce carbon emissions, and create more resilient communities, transitioning us toward a more sustainable world.

Forum panelists will include representatives from: Hampton, Gloucester, James City County, New Kent County, Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, York County, and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

Providing information on the Virginia Municipal League’s Go Green Government Challenge is Denise Thompson, Manager of Environmental Protection Programs in the City of Norfolk.

Contacts: Randie Trestrail, randiesue@gmail.com, 757-868-7044 or Tyla Matteson, tmatteson1@mindspring.com, 804-275-6476.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA06) is proposing a bill, the “Virginia Access to Energy Act” (H.R. 4942), that forces Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to conduct Virginia Lease Sale 220 within a year of the bill’s passage. “The ‘Virginia Access to Energy Act’ will remove the regulatory hurdles that have impeded development and create a path for Virginia to become ‘the Energy Capital of the East Coast’”, Goodlatte said.

“Impeding development” is the fact that the science potentially supporting Virginia’s offshore drilling is 30 years out of date. A thorough environmental study cannot not be performed in time for a 2011 lease sale.

Revealed at a Department of Interior workshop in Williamsburg in December 2008, large data gaps exist when it comes to endangered and protected species, fish and fisheries, the biology of the ocean floor, the ecosystems found in Virginia’s offshore ocean canyons and coral reefs, as well as the physical and geological oceanography.

Off Virginia’s coast, there have been sightings of sea turtles, right whales, humpback whales, and sperm whales - all of which are classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales and beaked whales which are all protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act have also been sighted in what is Virginia’s lease sale area. Due to a lack of consistent survey effort throughout the region, seasonal distribution patterns and abundance patterns for all these species are not well known. Also, no surveys for birds have been conducted in the region. There is limited information regarding the ecosystems of the Norfolk and Washington Canyons as they tend to be spatially diverse, complex and difficult to study.

Especially for oil spill risk analysis, current and wind information has been deemed a high priority data gap. The presence of several deep water canyons within the Virginia lease sale area complicates the physical and geological setting. There is limited understanding of the effect of internal tides and waves and their mixing with currents at the shelf break and canyon heads.

Not only are there huge gaps in the scientific information needed to evaluate the impact of drilling off Virginia’s coast, but its offshore zone is a vital piece of a much larger and interconnected coastal and oceanic ecosystem. So, rather than singling out a small area off a single state for environmental study – as Virginia is right now - the Atlantic coast as a whole needs to be thoroughly studied.

Given that ocean waters know no state boundaries, no study supporting Virginia drilling is complete without the study of its neighboring coastal states. Including Virginia in the same process used to study all other Atlantic offshore drilling makes sense.

In November 2008, one last parting “gift” from the Bush Administration was the designation of a 2.9 million acre area off the Virginia coast, Lease Sale 220, for oil and gas drilling.

In May 2009, a District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated that Bush-era drilling program. The Court’s Opinion noted that insufficient scientific information about offshore waters proposed for drilling made it impossible for the Department of Interior to fully comply with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Thus, the legal ramifications of pressing on with drilling Virginia’s offshore zone, which is also enrolled in this flawed drilling program, should also be weighed before pressing on with the rush to drill Virginia.

Now more than ever, please join the over 1,000 Virginians who have emailed Secretary Salazar urging him to resist the rush to drill. Our precious Chesapeake Bay, our sensitive coastal wetlands, and our highly lucrative tourism and fishing industries are completely dependent on clean beaches and healthy ocean waters. He must appreciate the bounty we have in coastal Virginia and how much we stand to lose if
oil drilling were to occur irresponsibly. Click here to email Salazar TODAY!

The York River Group has held candidate forums for 20 years, in Hampton and Newport News, and have enjoyed great success with them. Our local political work provides the candidates with information on issues related to the protection of our natural resources. The forums afford SC members and the general public an opportunity to hear from the candidates, with an opening and a closing statement, and answer questions from the public.

On occasion, there is an issue of significant importance or controversy, such as the proposed King William Reservoir, which not only brings out the pros and cons, but also gets media attention for the issue and for the Sierra Club.

In addition to forums, we also send a questionnaire to all candidates, asking questions on land use and protection, air quality protection, water & wetland protection, addressing climate change, sea level rise, encouraging their city governments and citizens to turn to alternative energy such as solar and wind power, and encouraging recycling programs. The questions are specific to the areas, depending whether the candidates are in Hampton, Newport News, or on occasion Williamsburg.

The questionnaire responses, forum and public statements, and if applicable, voting records, are evaluated by the two appropriate committees, for a possible SC endorsement. Following any endorsement, SC members are encouraged to assist in the candidate’s campaigns, with the goal to elect another friend to the environment.

Forum for Newport News Mayor and City Council Candidates
Date: 6:45-8:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Location: Newport News Main Street Library, 110 Main Street
Contact: Tyla Matteson 804-275-6476 or Ann Moore 757-722-9785

Forum for Hampton City Council Candidates
Date: 7:00-9:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Location: Sandy Bottom Nature Center, 1255 Big Bethel Rd., Hampton
Contact: Tyla Matteson 804-275-6476 or Ann Moore 757-722-9785

One tour stop is in our own neighborhood. On Tuesday, March 16 from 12 to 2pm at the Ernie Morgan Environmental Action Center, we will highlight the local economic and environmental benefits of an energy-efficient and sustainable building. Come learn more about solar energy, eco-gardens and sustainability. Refreshments will be served. $2 suggested donation. Contact Christy Fisher 520-730-9708 or Judy Hinch 757-816-8989 for more info.

Ernie Morgan Environmental Action Center is located at 3500 Granby St. near the Virginia Zoo at Lafayette Park.

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!

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.

Folks in Southside Hampton Roads will gather starting at 6:30 on Friday, December 11 at the Unitarian Church of Norfolk, 739 Yarmouth Street on the Hague. Speakers include ODU Professor and scholar David Burdige, Department of Ocean Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. For more information, contact Rev. Phyllis L. Hubbell, 410-916-1793, phubbell@uuma.org.

Click here to RSVP. Other Vigils for Survival include Newport News, Williamsburg, and Blacksburg.

“All we did was testify about real things that have really happened, to make the point that despite advances in technology, mistakes are still made and accidents still happen - and with offshore oil production, the consequences still can be severe”, writes Sky Truth’s John Amos who was invited to testify on several significant oil spill incidents they’ve investigated over the past few years.

These investigations include “the recent Montara platform blowout and spill in the Timor Sea off Western Australia; this summer’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Eugene Island Pipeline operated by Shell; and the spills from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike in 2008, that exposed the Achilles heel of offshore production: the vulnerability and severe spill risk posed by the coastal infrastructure - especially pipelines and storage facilities - that is necessary to support offshore drilling.”

Sky Truth was also commissioned to produce the image depicting the Australian oil spill off Virginia’s coast. Click here to view image.

As an LTE in today’s Virginian-Pilot points out (not online yet - see below the fold), politicians hinge their support of offshore drilling on its capacities to be done in an environmentally safe manner. The Australian spill especially shoots that pro-drilling argument to hell. The truth hurts and thus the knee-jerk reaction of people like Sen. Landrieu saying basically “shit happens”.

Why in the world do we want shit to happen off our Virginia coasts?

Adrift on offshore drilling

Re “Health care divides Senate hopefuls at rare GOP forum,” Hampton Roads, Nov. 22: The debates failed to address Jeff McWaters’ stance on offshore drilling. He came to my door a few weeks ago. When I asked about his view, he said he supports it.

There is no such thing as safe offshore drilling. Just ask the citizens of Australia, who are dealing with a major disaster from the two-year-old, state-ofthe-art Montara drilling rig — one of the so- called “safe” ones. After two months of trying to cap it, the blowout created a slick over an area 10 times the size of London.

Opening our coast for drilling is a veritable Pandora’s box. I can’t imagine an intelligent person thinking this will benefit our area. It is political posturing and a shameless betrayal because, as the laws stand now, profits from oil and gas leases go straight to the feds.

I don’t know Rosemary Wilson’s position on drilling, but seeing how she has supported the Beach during her tenure makes me feel a lot more comfortable with her in the state Senate.

Christine Morgan
Virginia Beach