Emergency: Massive Oil Spill in California

 

  CENTER for BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

Devastating news from Southern California: Oil-covered fish and birds are already washing ashore in Huntington Beach after the worst oil spill in the area in decades. At least 126,000 gallons have spilled. The mayor of Newport Beach reported dolphins swimming through oil. Our waters, coastlines and marine wildlife have suffered for too long at the hands of Big Oil. If we're going to save life on Earth, we must move away from fossil fuels and end the senseless, destructive practice of offshore drilling. Please help today with an urgent gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund. The oil spewed from a pipeline connected to a platform more than eight miles off the coast of California. Our staff has seen this platform by boat and said it looks rusty and corroded. Oil has now reached Newport Beach as well as Huntington. Those beaches have been closed, and volunteers anxious to save wildlife have been asked to stay away. This spill could shut down the beaches for months. The cost to birds and marine wildlife is incalculable. Whales, dolphins and other sea life can be harmed by breathing oil's toxic fumes or die after swimming through oil. Offshore drilling platforms are ticking time bombs. When oil spills into the ocean, it does long-lasting damage to people, animals and our coastlines. The Center has been fighting offshore drilling for decades — and this disaster shows why every offshore drilling project must be opposed. Late last year we won a lawsuit that stopped what would have been the first oil project fully within federal waters in the Arctic. Just last week we helped push Santa Barbara County to deny a proposal that would have allowed ExxonMobil to restart three drilling platforms off its shores. But so much more needs to be done — and with such great urgency. Federal action must be taken to decommission the aging, hazardous platforms off California's coast. Please help by giving to the Saving Life on Earth Fund. For the wild,

Kierán Suckling Executive Director Center for Biological Diversity

At least 126,000 gallons of oil have spilled off the Southern California coast. Oil-covered birds and fish are already washing ashore. Dolphins have been seen swimming through oil.

The madness of offshore drilling must end.