risks to their seaside economies, the hundreds of billions of dollars in the fishery and tourism industries. leslie warren says if an east coast spill occurs on the scale of the 1989 exxon valdez accident, the oil spill could stretch from north carolina to massachusetts. the project for exploration won t even start until 2012. then they ll do seismic studies, environmental impact surveys, and give the public plenty of input in the process. myron ebel of the pro-business group the competitive enterprise group says this the risks of oil production in terms of doing environmental damage have been greatly reduced over the last several decades. but in terms of where the risks still are, i think it s in shipping rather than in in the wells and then piping it somewhere. ebel says the positive side of producing more oil in the u.s. is just too great to ignore