President Barack Obama has announced plans to begin drilling for natural gas and oil along certain areas of the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska. This would lift a decade-long ban on offshore drilling in the United States. “Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates of the left and the right, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place,” Obama said, according to The New York Times. “Because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.”

Not split along the usual partisan lines, opposition to this plan comes from both Republicans and Democrats, environmentalists and business leaders.

One environmentalist, Phil Radford of Greenpeace, has expressed his concerns about the negative effects of America’s drilling.

“Expanding offshore drilling in areas that have been protected for decades threatens our oceans and the coastal communities that depend on them with devastating oil spills, more pollution and climate change,” Radford told the BBC.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, does not agree. According to The New York Times, he called the proposal, “a step in the right direction, but a small one that leaves enormous amounts of American energy off-limits.”

In addition to worrying that America consumes 20 percent of the world’s oil but only owns 2 percent of the world’s reserves, Obama’s reasons for drilling were to promote new jobs and resources, according to the BBC.

The New York Times acknowledged that these new proposals are similar to ones given by former President George W. Bush. The key difference is that Obama’s plan would keep oil rigs away from Bristol Bay in Alaska, a delicate ecosystem of endangered wildlife including several endangered whales.

The region in the Gulf of Mexico that would be drilled contains an estimated 3.5 billion barrels of oil, and roughly 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas; lessening America’s dependency on foreign oil.

According to The New York Times, drilling could occur in Virginia as early as next year, at a minimum distance of 50 miles from the coast. In other regions, like Florida and Alabama-which fear for the sanctity of their fisheries, tourist beaches, and wildlife-drilling would be kept 150 miles from the coast.

Jacqueline Savitz, from the environmentalist group Oceana, does not consider the distance sufficient to preserve the coastline ecosystems.

“We’re appalled that the president is unleashing a wholesale assault on the oceans,” Savits said in a statement on Oceana’s Web site. “Expanding offshore drilling is the wrong move if the Obama administration is serious about improving energy security, creating lasting jobs and averting climate change.”

Eric Smith of The Washington Post has a different perspective. In his article entitled “Offshore oil drilling might make environmental sense,” Smith noted that between 1971 and 2000, only 2 percent of oil in U.S. waters has been attributed to offshore pipelines and facilities. Sixty-three percent comes from the oil seeping out of natural deposits, while the rest can be attributed to industrial runoff. Smith feels it is unlikely that there is any serious risk of oil spills.

Obama’s proposal has yet to be approved.