Small Town News

Carney: Protect Delaware coasts

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Urges feds to focus on alternative energy

Standing before Cape Henlopen State Park's pristine beaches, U.S. congressional candidate John Carney urged a repeal of President Barack Obama's recently announced federal offshore drilling plan. Flanked by local elected officials and environmental advocates Thursday, May 6, Carney said he opposed offshore drilling well before the April 20 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I feel we need to focus on alternative energy and new technology," Democrat Carney said. "What can we do? We can stand up against offshore drilling in this part of the world."

The oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and continues to spew millions of gallons of oil into the gulf. At press time, efforts to cap the gush were not yet successful, and 200,000 gallons of oil a day were still seeping into waters off the coast of Louisiana.

The economic implications of such a disaster off Delaware would be staggering to Sussex County and the state's tourism-dependent economy, Carney said. In March, Obama announced a plan that OK'd leasing land off the Mid-Atlantic coast for exploratory drilling. Since the Gulf of Mexico disaster, however, Obama has put a moratorium on drilling. Carney said he opposed the proposal April 1, nearly a month before the oil rig calamity.

"It's simply not worth the risk to the coastal environment," he said. "Accidents can have tragic results."

Carney reminded the audience that the Inland Bays, salt marshes and seashores are home to horseshoe crabs, migratory birds and sea life, and critical for tourists, fishermen and researchers.

"It would only take one drilling accident to wipe it out in an instant," he said.

The Inland Bays, he said, are incapable of being cleaned out in the event of an accident because they lack flushing mechanisms.

Sen. George Bunting, D-Bethany Beach, and House Majority Leader Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, have been working in the General Assembly to pass laws to protect the Inland Bays, Carney said.

In 2007,32 million tourists visited Sussex County, spending an average of $405 in the Cape Region

Carney said those visits provided $387 million in state and local taxes.

"We can simply not afford a catastrophe like the one off the coast of Louisiana, and I ask Delawareans to join me and fight to get this proposal reversed now," Carney said.

In Sussex County alone, 31,000 jobs have been created based on tourism, resulting in $878 million in wages that are spent locally, he said.

"The federal government's proposal takes us backward instead of moving us forward. We need a national energy policy that makes the United States less reliant on carbon-based fuels and less dependent on foreign oil" he said.

Carney said Delaware should be building wind farms, not drilling for oil and natural gas.

Part of Obama's plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil includes the expansion of alternative energy, such as wind farms. But the ongoing oil rig disaster should reinforce Delaware's dedication to green energy, said Carney.





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