Gulf Coast Family Businesses Join Sierra Club to Say: 'We’re Worth 3 Times More Than All the Oil You Could Drill For In The Gulf'



Kathleen McDole, President of the Friendly Fisherman restaurant at Madeira Beach's John's Pass Village, explains
why she opposes oil & gas drilling in the eastern Gulf as her siblings, Mark Hubbard and Patricia Hubbard, look on.

In the long debate over offshore drilling, the oil industry and some policy makers have claimed that our tax base and coastal jobs rely on expanding oil and gas drilling to new places. However, one critical set of issues has largely been ignored: the potentially devastating economic losses that new offshore drilling could create for our existing coastal economies and the undeniably real potential for damage to our treasured coasts and marine resources.

Today Sierra Club and Environment Florida released a new report,

"Too Much At Stake: Don't Gamble With Our Coasts" that objectively quantifies the relative value of our current coastal assets: coastal tourism, real estate and recreational and commercial fishing, and compares it to the estimated value of oil and gas reserves in the eastern Gulf. The report documents that on Florida’s Gulf Coast, these existing sustainable businesses are worth 3 times more than all the oil & gas we ever could drill for in the eastern Gulf.