How offshore drilling became a losing proposition

When the small town of Cape May, New Jersey, held a “Save our Seas” rally on a blustery Monday in March, close to 400 people showed up to protest offshore drilling or exploration.

That was a big number, says Vicki Clark, the president of the county’s chamber of commerce. “New Jersey is very partisan, but our entire congressional delegation is united in the position of opposing the administration’s plan for exploration and drilling in the Atlantic,” she says.

On one hand, she says, there are the threats to coastal economies and ecosystems from a spill. On the other, densely populated Atlantic states like New Jersey lack greenfield sites for oil refining infrastructure, so there’s limited investment upside. “It’s all risk and no reward for us,” she says.  

Now, a year after