AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File
This article originally appeared on Facing South , the website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. In a controversial move, on July 18, the Obama administration gave final approval for the oil and gas industry to begin conducting seismic testing to map potential offshore reserves along the Atlantic Coast from Delaware to Florida. The decision comes as the administration is drawing up a new five-year plan for selling offshore drilling leases beginning in late 2017. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said its plan to move forward with the oil and gas studies "adopts the strongest practicable safeguards to eliminate or reduce to eliminate or reduce impacts to human, marine and coastal environments." These include additional environmental reviews for specific sites and special closure areas to protect the main migratory route for the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, only about 450 of which are left in the world. The animals' only breeding and calving...