People or whales?
This is not the choice we face.
Yesterday, my friend Thea Maria Carlson, sent a text to our group of college buddies telling us about the public comment period to speak out about the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program. She acknowledged that there are so.many.things right now. And, well, this felt like something I could do. Plus, I just read a great book (Tom Mustill’s How to Speak Whale) so Monterey Bay is top of mind. And, as you may have guessed, Monterey Bay is among dozens of areas threatened with renewed (wholly unnecessary) offshore drilling leases.
Here is my comment (tracking # mkr-dm3g-wmf2):
Comments are due by 11:59pm EST today, so not a lot of time left, but Monterey Bay Aquarium offers a script comment if you are short on time. You can also call your representatives.
Dear Mr. Giacona, (apparently I should have addressed this to Secretary Burgum…eek!)
TL;DR: I oppose the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program (11th Program or National OCS Program) for 4 reasons:
It endangers Americans.
It is unnecessary.
It threatens American ingenuity. And our economy.
It’s bad for whales. Which means it’s bad for people.
Now I’ll elaborate. I’m grateful you asked for my opinion because I’ve been meaning to tell someone in this administration about this amazing technology that feeds two metaphorical birds with one scone (which I prefer to bludgeoning two birds with one stone – plus, how does that work anyhow).
Are you ready? The amazing technology that can turn the frowns upside down on points 1-4 above is: renewable energy. (Also energy efficiency, which is my fave path to “cold beers and hot showers” (to quote Amory Lovins) – but efficiency is not as sexy as renewables and won’t be enough on its own anyhow).
1 & 2. Renewable energy offers the clearest pathway to “achieve(ing) energy security and resilience by reducing U.S. reliance on imported energy,” a priority for this administration. I concede it’s plausible that domestically sourced fossil fuels could do this in the very short run (say the length of an election cycle or two). Even on that note, I’d really like you to show me the numbers. But anyhow, when we double down on the oldest of old-school energy sources, we’re on borrowed time. Each day we spend digging into the past (straddling some serious epochs, somehow evoking both Jurassic and 19th-20th-and-oh-crap-still-21st century vibes), is a day we don’t spend investing in developing and deploying an evergreen path to energy security and total independence from imported fuels.
3. Think of American ingenuity. American innovation. Renewable energy is way more on brand for ‘Merica. Dredging up the dregs of old ferns and dinosaur sludge is insulting to our spirit of independence and entrepreneurship. Sometimes when I read proposals like this one for offshore drilling, I feel like I should start talking like some olde-timey-sepia-toned character saying things like “gee willikers” and “golly.” If what we want is to “reinvigorate American manufacturing and job growth,” renewable energy is WAY more on point. And, between you and me, at the moment America lags waaaaaay behind several other countries (*cough* China). In 2023, the International Renewable Energy Agency said that there were 16.2 million global renewable energy jobs…China alone had 7.4 million–45% of the global total. The European Union had 1.8 million jobs, Brazil 1.6 million, and the United States and India each slightly more than 1 million. Listen, I’m not sure the equivalent of a canary in the coal mine of offshore drilling, maybe a barking seal or breaching whale, but I do think it’s worth you noticing that this situation is unlikely to end well for America. Let’s be the vanguard of awesomeness rather than fossilized relics.
Mr. Giacona, I was being tongue and cheek there. A touch irreverent. I meant no harm. It’s just that it seems like we’re failing to connect some pretty obvious dots by clinging to the past. And I really don’t want that for our country. We know better. We are better.
On point number 4, though, it’s not enough to just connect dots, although there are dots to be connected. Consider, for two, the relationship between magical places like Serengeti of the Sea (Monterey Bay) and economic activity from tourism. There are more dots like this, surely. But the dots aren’t enough because they are based only on logic (which, to review, still falls on the NO DRILLING side).
Beyond the dots – when and where I feel about the marine ecosystem, the wildlife, the whales – that’s where I break wide open. And that’s where I hope you will too, Mr. Giacona.
Whales. Oh my goodness. I’ve just read Tom Mustill’s breathtaking book, How to Speak Whale. A few months ago, I read Christina Rivera (Author) stunning love-song-of-a-memoirish book of essays, My Oceans. Now I am swimming in images of the folds upon folds of wisdom contained in those big beautiful contours in those massive brains in those gigantic bodies who travel the unfathomable fathoms of the sea – whose homes are the very waters threatened by offshore drilling. I don’t know whales well, but for me it only takes one story of a pod of orcas guiding a biologist back to safety through dense fog to know we have so much more to learn about each other. And I want the chance to keep learning. To know whales.
Because I think this is about knowing myself. Ourselves.
The choice set isn’t energy or no energy. It’s not people or whales. The choice–my choice–your choice (I hope)-our choice (I believe)–is life.
Sincerely,
Becca Katz