Maine's Congresswoman Chellie Pingree says she'll strongly oppose any effort to open the Gulf of Maine to offshore oil drilling.
The 1st District Democrat says such drilling would put Maine fishing jobs at risk. "We don't want to see what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico ever happen in the Gulf of Maine," Pingree says in a statement. "An oil spill like that one here in Maine would be devastating to the fishing economy and our environment."
A moratorium on drilling along much of the U.S. east and west coasts, including the Gulf of Maine, expired in 2008, she notes, but recently, the Obama Administration has opened up some areas off the mid-Atlantic coast to oil exploration.
Pingree says that will never happen off the Maine coast if she gets her way. Last year, she says, she cosponsored legislation that would prevent any president from ever opening parts of the Gulf of Maine to oil drilling, including the area around the rich fishing grounds of Georges Bank.
"There have been some who have suggested oil exploration in the Gulf of Maine," she says. "But we need to take it off the table and say no drilling here, period." She says the growing environmental disaster off the Louisiana coast highlights the need to develop alternative sources of clean energy, such as wind and tidal power.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe says the Gulf Coast spill is a wake-up call. "While our focus must be in containing and mitigating an environmental catastrophe to the ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast, the calamity reinforces the fact that conventional offshore energy development must be done with extreme caution," she says in a statement. "Clearly, offshore drilling presents risks to our coastal economy, and that is why I strongly believe that the future of the Gulf of Maine must remain in the hands of Mainers. As a result, I remain opposed to the federal government having the authority to unilaterally decide the proper use of Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine."