Environmental security

Lester Jackson: Say 'No' to seismic airgun blasting off Georgia's coast

Last week, I joined 69 state legislators in Georgia and the Carolinas to strongly encourage President Obama to oppose seismic airgun blasting off the Southeast coast. Unfortunately, despite the Obama administration’s recent decision to remove the Atlantic from federal offshore drilling plans in the near future, they are still preparing to issue permits for the oil and gas industry to conduct seismic airgun blasting in an area twice the size of California, spanning from Delaware to Florida.

Seismic airgun blasting is the first step to offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic. This extremely disruptive and harmful process is used to map potential oil and gas deposits under the seafloor. Ships drag an array of airguns back and forth across the water; the airguns fire extremely loud blasts through the ocean and into the seafloor about every 10 seconds, for weeks to months on end. And yes, my friends, that area will include our precious Georgia coast.