Exploration on Georges Bank OK'd
Critics say oil, gas survey could disrupt fishing grounds
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | August 5, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A provision tucked into the energy bill approved by Congress last week calls on the government to conduct a survey of potential oil and gas drilling at sites along the entire US coastline, including Georges Bank off the coast of Nantucket.
The measure directs the Department of Interior to conduct an ''inventory and analysis of oil and gas resources" beneath the outer continental shelf, the relatively shallow areas beginning about 3 miles off the nation's coastline. That includes Georges Bank, a vast underwater plateau that stretches from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia and has been among the world's most fertile fishing grounds.
Energy companies have sought to drill for oil and gas on the bank for more than 30 years, prompting protracted legal and congressional battles. A ban on drilling has been in place since 1982, and the current moratorium runs through 2012. The energy bill, which President Bush is expected to sign next week, does not alter the drilling ban but lifts the prohibition on exploration, which was added during the 1990s.
Some fishing and environmental groups say that even looking for the buried resources could disrupt the fragile ecological environment at Georges Bank at a time that authorities are trying to restock declining fish populations. The measure specifically authorizes ''3-D seismic technology," where the ocean floor is mapped through the use of air guns that emit high-intensity sound waves, potentially harming fish.
If the exploration suggests that significant petroleum sits beneath the bank, political pressure could mount for the Bush administration or Congress to reverse the moratorium that has protected Georges and other pristine tracts like it for decades, said Richard Charter, cochairman of the National OCS Coalition, an association of environmental and fishing groups formed to prevent drilling on the outer continental shelf.
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''It's more than a foot in the door -- it's the entire camel under the tent," Charter said of authorizing oil exploration. ''When you're trying to restore a damaged fishery, it's counterintuitive to introduce something that will further damage fisheries in a real way. The cost is likely to be the survivability of the ecosystem."
The sprawling Georges Bank shoal yields scallops, haddock, cod, flounder, herring, and mackerel, and is crucial to the fishing economies of communities including New Bedford and Gloucester. Overfishing led to access restrictions in the mid-1990s, but scientists have reported rebounds in some fish populations there in recent years.
Federal officials say it is premature to start sounding alarm bells about exploring for oil on Georges Bank. Though the bill requires the seismic testing to develop a nationwide inventory, it does not provide any money to conduct the testing, meaning it is unclear when such an expensive examination can begin. The Minerals Management Service will first review existing studies on underwater oil and gas resources, and then conduct further research as money allows, said Gary Strasburg, a spokesman for the agency.
''We're being asked to do something, but we're not provided any money to do it with," he said.
Strasburg noted that the five-year plan the agency is developing for the outer continental shelf does not call for drilling at Georges or other areas protected by federal bans. ''Without the moratoria being lifted, there's nothing more we can do other than gather information," Strasburg said.
Money could come later this year, as Congress completes its annual spending bills. Some environmental groups and members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation say they fear that authorizing the inventory is a first step toward drilling in Georges Bank. ''Every coastal state should be concerned that this so-called inventory will be little more than a blueprint for massive new offshore drilling," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. ''We'll strongly resist any attempt to turn Georges Bank into a forest of oil and gas wells."
Comprehensive seismic surveys are expected to cost between $75 million and $125 million for each of the 26 parcels of the outer continental shelf. But oil and gas companies have only expressed interest in a handful of those ''planning areas," including Georges Bank, because rock structures and the presence of ancient organic materials indicate a likelihood of oil and gas deposits. Lawmakers could choose to fund exploration only on the tracts that are considered most promising.
The federal government had scheduled auctions for access to drilling tracts on Georges Bank in the late 1970s, but those sales were halted by legal roadblocks by the state and environmental groups. Industry interest in Georges Bank has cooled since then -- the focus has shifted to the Florida and California coasts, particularly given the strong opposition in New England -- but the area remains a potential target for oil and gas exploration companies.
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The provision calling for exploration of underwater oil and gas resources was approved by the Senate and not by the House, though negotiators on the energy bill agreed to include it in the final version of the measure. Supporters called it an important part of a national energy policy that seeks to find new sources of domestically produced energy.
Getting a clear picture of the resources off the US coastline is essential to making decisions about energy policy, said Bob Moran, Washington representative for the American Petroleum Institute.
''Doesn't it make sense to know what the resource base is with our oil and natural gas offshore?" Moran said. ''It's just the smart way of doing things, because you want the data in order to make sound management decisions."
But Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat who served on the conference committee on the energy bill, said the oil and gas industry wants to override local objections and put up the kind of oil rigs that dot the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.
''This is at the very top of the oil and gas industry agenda," Markey said. ''They did not spend all this political capital just to make a point. They did this so they can drill off of any coastline in the United States."
Though the data are mixed, some recent studies have indicated seismic testing to impair the hearing mechanisms of fish can kill fish eggs and larvae, and drive marine mammals -- including rare whale species -- from their feeding grounds.
Setting off loud blasts in the hopes of finding oil or gas is not worth the risk to the teeming natural environment at Georges Bank, said David G. Bergeron, executive director of the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership based in Gloucester.
''They're shaking the bottom of the ocean so they can see what's underneath," Bergeron said. ''It causes a lot of damage to any species that's near these things, at one of the most productive fishing grounds on the planet."
The energy industry says that seismic testing is not nearly as harmful to fish as environmental groups say, and points out that safeguards are in place to temporarily halt the process when whales are in the area. The sound blasts are aimed straight down from air guns attached to ships, to minimize the level of disruption they cause.
But opponents of drilling say that finding whatever lies beneath Georges Bank does not justify the potential harm. Even if oil and gas is found, drilling in Georges Bank will do nothing to stop the US reliance on fossil fuels, said Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts. ''Just think of our fishermen and the hard work they've done to rebuild our fish stocks, and how drilling can put all of that at risk," Kerry said. ''And for what? No one claims drilling off the coast will do much to solve our energy problems."
Rick Klein can be reached at
rklein@globe.com.
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