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Celebrities to Fight Atlantic Offshore Drilling

Waterston lobbies on Capitol Hill in 2009. (CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Waterston lobbies on Capitol Hill in 2009. (CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Oceana is bringing out celebrities and lawmakers in a major push against industrial offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.  

On Tuesday, Ted Danson, known for his role in “Cheers,” and Sam Waterston, familiar from “Law & Order,” both Oceana board members and ocean advocates, will attend Oceana’s Coastal Voices Summit. Kate Walsh, an Oceana supporter and recurring speaker for the group who is most famous from “Grey’s Anatomy,” will also participate. Reps. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and Jared Huffman, D-Calif., will join the actors. The goal is to urge President Barack Obama to abandon any plans for offshore Atlantic drilling.  

“I have long believed in the importance of conserving natural resources as well as financial resources. At home, I’ve heard folks overwhelmingly express concern about the prospect of offshore drilling for several reasons,” Sanford told HOH.  

“These include the threat it might pose to tourism, the onshore industrial overlay that’s necessary to support it, and the lack of transparency at this point with regard to seismic testing,” the congressman, who represents low-country coastal South Carolina, continued.  

The issue of offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean faces is a 2021 deadline, which is when the Interior Department plans to hold an Atlantic lease sale.  

The event on Jan. 26 takes place at 7 p.m. at The George Washington University and is followed the next day by a lobbying day on Capitol Hill.


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