The House of Representatives voted yesterday to pass H.R. 1230, the first in a series of bills that supporters claim will lower gas prices and create jobs, but would in fact endanger people and the environment while doing little to alleviate short- or long-term energy challenges. As our Associate Director Mark Pelavin said in our statement on the bill, “We are disappointed by Congress’ failure to move our nation toward a safe and sustainable energy and environmental future, acting instead to accelerate dangerous offshore oil drilling.”

I could not agree more. We are one year out from the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 men and spilled five million barrels of oil – and communities across the Gulf Coast are still feeling the impact. Yet rather than act to restore the Gulf, prevent future oil disasters and move our nation to clean energy (don’t forget to urge your members of Congress to support these efforts!), some legislators insist on expanding and accelerating dangerous drilling.

Yes, gas prices are high and dependence on foreign oil is a serious challenge. Yet, recklessly and speedily opening our shores to dangerous offshore drilling – when we still haven’t solved the problems that caused last year’s oil disaster – will neither solve our energy challenges nor protect our nation. Opening new areas to drilling won’t bring down prices at the pump today: it takes years to bring new oil wells online and oil prices are set on a world market. Rather, these bills put our environment and our health at risk in an effort to score political points.

The good news is that this is only the first of three drilling bills, and we can still raise our voices against H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1231, which would force the government both to approve drilling permits on an arbitrarily short timeline and to lease new areas across the Outer Continental Shelf, including sensitive areas of the Arctic, to drilling.

Our Jewish values are clear: we are responsible as caretakers for our environment, and although we must continue to power our nation and our world, we cannot do so in such shortsighted and irresponsible ways. The Reform Movement has spoken out repeatedly on the dangers of offshore oil, even before last year’s drilling catastrophe, and we must continue to remind decision-makers that expanding and accelerating offshore drilling is an unsustainable response to our energy challenges.

Let’s look beyond the price of gas today (which the legislation passed in the House yesterday will not alleviate) and instead look toward a clean and safe energy and environmental future – and let’s urge Congress to get to work in building it!