No to offshore drilling and yes to clean energy and electric transportation!

No to offshore drilling, Yes to clean energy and electric transportation!

That was SACE’s message at the 2021 Hands Across the Sand event, which took place virtually on Saturday, May 15. This year’s event was the 12th annual Hands Across the Sand day of action, where communities around the country and across the world join with their neighbors to show support for protecting the coast against the impacts of risky offshore drilling. The event was held virtually again this year due to COVID, and while we could not gather in person, the event clearly demonstrated a call from advocates and organizations that our coasts are too precious to risk with offshore drilling.

Watch the Hands Across the Sand event livestream

I delivered remarks at the event, with the purpose of calling on policymakers to enact a permanent ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling and accelerate progress toward a clean, electric transportation future. View a recording and a written version of my remarks below.

Written Remarks

Hi, I’m Chris Carnevale in Charleston, South Carolina. I work for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible and equitable energy choices to ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeastern United States.

SACE has been a sponsor of Hands Across the Sand since 2010 and I personally have organized Hands events on Folly Beach, South Carolina, with partners like Oceana and Surfrider, every year since 2012.

I am motivated to do this work because I believe in the ethic of leaving a place better than you find it. And it is such an important time to work to leave our beautiful planet better than we’ve found it.

The Southeast has such amazing coastal places, like Folly Beach which you can see behind me, and so many other islands, beaches, and marshes.

But these amazing places are threatened by offshore drilling and fossil fuel pollution, both by the possibility of an oil spill and also global warming and sea-level rise.

To protect these wonderful places and ensure healthier and better lives for all the people who call the coast home, we need to move away from fossil fuels and transform our energy system to renewables and electric vehicles. SACE has done analysis and has found that electric vehicle adoption can totally offset any perceived demand for gasoline that could be produced by opening currently-protected areas around the U.S. to new offshore drilling, as previous presidential administrations and members of Congress have tried to do. But transitioning to electric transportation at the scale and pace we need to to avoid the worst impacts of climate change is going to take support from individuals and policymakers.

We’re proud to join hands with you, and call on Congress and President Biden to permanently ban new offshore drilling and put the pedal to the metal in accelerating our electric transportation future, powered by solar and wind energy.

Take Action

Offshore drilling and seismic blasting jeopardize the environment and our thriving coastal tourism economy. These risky activities are not appropriate for our coast and coastal communities overwhelmingly oppose offshore drilling and seismic blasting, yet previous Democratic and Republican presidents alike have proposed nearby drilling.

In the absence of legislation permanently protecting our coast, future presidents could easily move to threaten our coasts once again. Take action and send an email to your members of Congress, encouraging them to enact a ban on offshore drilling for oil and fossil gas, while supporting the transition to electric transportation.

Take Action