Dear (Still) President Obama,
You know us and you know our stories. You know our tragedies, our disasters, and our peril – Katrina, Rita, the BP oil disaster, daily oil spills and all-too-regular fossil fuel related accidents. Not to mention, we’re losing a football field of wetlands an hour in Louisiana, caused by the combined impact of oil and gas infrastructure along with sea level rise due to climate change, eroding our first line of defense from increasingly strong storms. We are the frontline, grassroots communities of the Gulf Coast resisting the continued extraction of our land and our waters. And, we refuse to be a sacrifice zone for this country any longer.
Your administration had the prescience to take the Arctic and the Atlantic off the table for oil and gas lease sales through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Are we not worth the same consideration?
We believe our waters, our people, our cultures and our communities are worthy of these same protections.
We, the people of the Gulf South, no longer stand for being the sacrificial zone for industry, for oil and gas exploration and drilling, coal extraction, deep-well injection, fracking and all other extractive activities that harm our environment, our communities and our cultures.
We have spoken. No New Leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Hear us.
We have a moral and ethical responsibility to change the trajectory we are on for the survival of our people and our planet.
We do not know what the next years will bring us with a new climate-change denying administration. Right now, you could provide the Gulf South with a window of opportunity for a just transition to an environmentally sustainable and economically vibrant future.
We need you, President Obama, in your last 100 days to stand with us and protect our precious Gulf Of Mexico and its people.
We live at the front lines of climate change impacts and ground zero for extractive industry.
Standing with us is standing for the future of our planet and generations to come.
Water Is Life. Please, President Obama, declare No New Leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sincerely,
Barbara Albrecht, Panhandle Watershed Alliance, Pensacola, FL
Maria Aguiar, Bradenton, FL
Marta Badon, New Orleans, LA
Liz Barry, Public Lab, New Orleans, LA
Stephen Bradberry, Alliance Institute, New Orleans, LA
Imani Jacqueline Brown, Blights Out, New Orleans, LA
Alicia Cooke, 350 Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
Catherine Coleman Flowers, Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise, Montgomery, AL
Jennifer Crosslin, Steps Coalition, Biloxi, MS
Shannon Dosemagen, New Orleans, LA
Jayeesha Dutta, Radical Arts and Healing Collective, New Orleans, LA
Scott Eustis, New Orleans, LA
Leah Fishbein, Radical Arts and Healing Collective, New Orleans, LA
Cherri Foytlin, BOLD Louisiana, Rayne, LA
Benjamin Franklin Craft-Rendon, Solidarity Houston, Houston, TX
Sarah Fritz, Metairie, LA
Shana Griffin, New Orleans, LA
Mary Gutierrez, Earth Action, Inc., Pensacola, FL
Renate Heurich, 350 Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
Rebekah Hinojosa,Save RGV from LNG, Weslaco, TX
Raleigh Hoke, Gulf Restoration Network, New Orleans, LA
Sarah Howard, New Orleans, LA
Frances Kelley, 350 Shreveport, Shreveport, LA
Klie Kleibert, Public Lab, New Orleans, LA
Danny Le, Boat People SOS Gulf Coast, Biloxi, MS
Kandice Legleu, Alliance Institute, New Orleans, LA
Ellen Lewis, Public Lab, New Orleans, LA
Rebeccah Lloyd, Louisiana Master Naturalist Program of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Jaclyn Lopez, Center for Biological Diversity, St. Petersburg, FL
LeAnn Magee, Voices of St. Tammany, Abita Springs, LA
Saren McAllister, Biloxi, MS
Tim McLean, New Orleans, LA
Luke Metzger, Environment Texas, Austin, TX
Stephanie Montalvo, Brighter Future Foundation, Hallandale, FL
Diana Morgan, Sierra Club, Slidell, LA
Yudith Nieto, The Community of Manchester, Houston, TX
Eric Nost, New Orleans, LA
Bryan Parras, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, Houston, TX
Adrienne Petrosini, New Orleans, LA
Ben Quimby, New Orleans, LA
Cyrus Reed, Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club, Austin, TX
Anne Rolfes, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, New Orleans, LA
Joanna Russo, Mondo Bizarro, New Orleans, LA
Bonny Schumaker, On Wings of Care, Inc., New Orleans, LA
Steve Shepard, Gulf Coast Group MS Sierra Club, Gautier, MS
Ruth Story, Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization (EEECHO), Gulfport, MS
Jessica R.Z. Simms, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA
Nick Slie, Mondo Bizarro, New Orleans, LA
Ramsey Sprague, Mobile, AL
Aly Tharp, ATXEJ and Tar Sands Blockade, Austin, TX
Margie Vicknair-Pray, Sierra Club, Lacombe, LA
Jeff Warren, Public Lab, New Orleans, LA
Ann-Meredith Wootton, Radical Arts and Healing Collective, New Orleans, LA