Landlocked Colorado environmental activists are rallying support on two different fronts in the wake of last month’s massive British Petroleum oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.
Environment Colorado is asking supporters to sign an online petition and call on the Obama administration to seriously reconsider recently announced plans to open up more than 200 million acres off the Atlantic coast of the United States and Gulf coast of Florida to offshore drilling.
That move was seen largely as an olive branch offered to Republicans in hopes of passing climate change legislation this session, but that bill now appears stuck in the Senate as the debate on comprehensive immigration reform flares up.
The grassroots Save the Poudre nonprofit, dedicated to conservation efforts in the Cache la Poudre watershed in northern Colorado, is making a direct appeal for funds to be donated to the worldwide Waterkeeper Alliance.
Save the Poudre is a Waterkeeper affiliate making the appeal on the behalf of Gulf Coast affiliates fighting to preserve wetlands now threatened by an oil slick the size of Rhode Island.
The Waterkeeper Alliance has set up a fund that will go directly to affiliates along the Gulf Coast. Click here for more information, or click here to donate.
“We strongly encourage Colorado citizens to support the Gulf Coast Disaster Relief effort,” Save the Poudre’s Gary Wockner said in a release. “This spill appears to be Valdez-like and devastating to the environment and economy of the Louisiana and Florida panhandle of the Gulf Coast. Urgent help is needed now.”
