meanwhile in honor of Earth Day celebrated over the weekend some of the state's top federal lawmakers are renewing an effort to permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling the legislation is part of a larger move to protect Marine habitats from oil spills and other effects of climate change and it comes about a week after a group of congressional Democrats sent a letter to the White House in response to the rise of Marine Mammal deaths off New Jersey's Coastline Ted Goldberg reports it is not a hyperbole to say that this is causing our house to be on fire and we have been supplying the matches Senator Corey Booker joined congressman Frank pallone dep commissioner Sean lacerette and ocean Advocates to tout a bill that would permanently ban offshore drilling off the Atlantic coast Booker says there are plenty of reasons to endorse the coast anti-drilling act from fighting climate change to protecting the economy we Empower literally hundreds of thousands of jobs in New Jersey tens of thousands of businesses our state is dependent upon the beauty the clean the strength of our oceans and our beaches offshore drilling is already banned within three miles of the coast under state law and oil companies have largely ignored the Atlantic when looking for new drill sites leaders have a new plan for producing energy on the shore offshore wind farms offshore wind is essential for our transition to a 21st century economy it's going to bring us good local jobs and they're high paying highly skilled jobs it's going to reduce air pollution less cancer less asthma and it's going to protect our marine environment from its greatest threat which is climate change itself the prospect of putting up large offshore wind farms has inspired protests up and down the state from people who believe offshore surveys have led to an increase in dead whales washing up over the last few years commissioner lotzeret says climate change is to blame for that especially since the unusual mortality events in humpback and North Atlantic right whales began before surveys did for offshore wind these unusual mortality events is in fact because of the changing nature of our climate and its impact on the oceans it is not because of an industrialization of the ocean that does not exist we've been talking a lot the last few months about whales and dolphins and fish but we're also talking about sea level rise and flooding from hurricanes we have to protect the Atlantic because the Jersey Shore communities depend on it we are a state that thrives because we have a great ocean economy we are a state that thrives when we keep our beaches and our environment clean pallone says this legislation faces a tough path in the republican-led House of Representatives which passed a separate Energy bill a month ago the lower energy costs Act passed the house by a mostly partisan vote a bill that pallone called quote an insult to Americans who aren't gas or oil Executives this was very much a bill that is a grab bag of oil giveaways and loopholes that endanger our health and safety and I try to attach an amendment to hr-1 to ban Atlantic Drilling but the Republicans blocked it where we drill we spill in Alaska catastrophic spilling off the coast of California catastrophic Gulf Coast catastrophic spilling where have we not had catastrophic spills on the Atlantic Ocean why because there's been no drilling New Jersey's coasts are also protected by a five-year offshore drilling moratorium enacted by the Biden Administration last summer in Long Branch I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news