John,

You’ve probably seen the terrible images of the new oil spill off the southern California coast. It’s an absolute catastrophe.

A ruptured old oil pipeline — part of the spiderweb of infrastructure associated with offshore drilling — caused 144,000 gallons of oil to gush into the ocean along the Orange County coast, shutting down some of California’s most popular beaches, killing precious wildlife, and threatening fragile wetlands.

No one should be surprised by this tragedy. If we’ve learned anything from decades of fossil fuel development it is this: where you drill, you spill. It doesn’t always make national news. But every single day, somewhere in America and in myriad places around the world, fossil fuel infrastructure is leaking, spilling, or exploding.

That’s why we must end our dirty, deadly addiction to fossil fuels. And an obvious place to start is by permanently banning new offshore drilling. I’ve been leading this fight in Congress for the past nine years, and this year we finally have a chance to make it happen.

Please click here to sign our petition in support of my bill to permanently ban new offshore drilling. It’s one of the most important things we can do to protect coastal communities from catastrophic oil spills.

The Orange County oil spill is a vivid reminder of how offshore drilling threatens our pristine oceans and coastlines. But we also know that the development, transport and burning of fossil fuels is a primary driver of the climate crisis that is literally threatening the livability of our planet.

This is no way to power a global economy. Especially now that we have safe, clean and cost-effective renewable energy sources. We must accelerate the transition to clean energy, and let’s face it — that means standing up to Big Oil, in a big way, right now.

That’s why progressive Democrats like me are pushing so hard to include bold climate reforms in the Build Back Better Act that is making its way through Congress. This bill includes my offshore drilling ban legislation, plus a lot more.

Lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry are working furiously to block us. Their goal is to either kill the Build Back Better Act or use their financial and political muscle to hijack it, gutting the clean energy provisions and replacing them with new oil and gas subsidies.

Not this time. Not with oil gushing onto our beaches and fouling our wetlands. Not with all the wildfires, superstorms and other raging reminders of the climate crisis. It’s been a long time coming, but the Build Back Better Act is where we must finally make our stand and say NO to the mighty fossil fuel industry.

Add your name to our petition today and demand that members of Congress take bold action to protect our oceans, beaches and planet from the ravages of fossil fuel.

Thanks,

Jared