Drilling off Coast is too risky, study says

BILOXI -- Coast business owners and conservationists on Wednesday plan to release a study they say will show how plans to open Mississippi waters to drilling will hurt the local economy and threaten resources such as the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

“This study conclusively concludes this is not in the best interest of the state,” said state Sierra Club Director Louie Miller. “It looks at the cost-benefit ratio ... We take (drilling proponents’) projects on what this will bring in and give them the benefit of the doubt that they are accurate -- which they’re not. If just 2 percent to 3 percent of tourists say they’re not coming back because of the industrial atmosphere this will create, any economic benefits from drilling would be negated, zeroes out ... And natural gas prices are at an all-time low. This is like selling your stock when the bottom has fallen out of the market.”

The group will release the study at Ship Island Excursions in the Gulfport Yacht Harbor at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday, the Mississippi Development Authority will hold public hearings on regulations it has drafted to lease state waters for drilling. One will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday in Jackson, at the MDA’s conference room in the Woolfolk Building downtown. Another will be from noon to 7 p.m. Friday at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Lecture Hall in Gautier. Residents’ questions and comments can also be submitted by e-mail at minerallease@mississippi.org or by mailing to: State Mineral Leasing Office, Mississippi Development Authority, P.O. Box 849, Jackson, MS, 39205.

Former Gov. Haley Barbour before he left office instructed MDA officials to move forward with opening state waters to exploration and drilling, a controversial effort that had been approved by the Legislature in 2004, but pushed to the back burner years ago by Hurricane Katrina. Lawmakers back then, after an outcry from tourism and other business leaders and conservationists, included a prohibition in drilling in most of the Mississippi Sound, but allowed it in areas along the Alabama and Louisiana lines and south of the barrier islands.

Proponents say the state has large natural gas reserves that could bring hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local coffers. Opponents say the threat to the environment and tourism is not worth the risk.