What's at stake in the debate over expanding offshore drilling

Energy News Network: The risk of oil spills from offshore drilling would threaten roughly 860,000 jobs and $51 billion in gross domestic product from Virginia to Florida, according to a new study by a nonprofit conservation group.

The analysis by Oceana includes economic data for the West Coast and the rest of the East Coast. It comes as the Trump administration takes public input on its plan to open virtually all U.S. waters to oil and gas development beginning next year.

The report draws on government tallies of ocean-dependent jobs, from beachfront hoteliers to tour boat captains to commercial fishers. It also uses government figures to estimate economically-recoverable supplies of oil and natural gas.

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