( CNN ) -- The oil disaster plaguing the Gulf of Mexico and our coastal states puts our desperate need for a new clean energy economy in stark relief . We need to move away from dirty , dangerous and deadly energy sources . We are pleased that the White House is now saying it will suspend any new offshore drilling while the explosion and spill are investigated , but there should be no doubt left that drilling will only harm our coasts and the people who live there . Taking a temporary break from offshore drilling is an important step , but it 's not enough . We need to stop new offshore drilling for good , now . And then we need an aggressive plan to wean America from dirty fossil fuels in the next two decades . This BP offshore rig that exploded was supposed to be state-of-the-art . We 've also been assured again and again that the hundreds of offshore drilling rigs along our beaches are completely safe . Now , we 've seen workers tragically killed . We 've seen our ocean lit on fire , and now we 're watching hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic oil seep toward wetlands and wildlife habitat . This rig 's well is leaking 210,000 gallons of crude every day , wiping out aquatic life and smothering the coastal wetlands of Louisiana and Mississippi . As the reeking slick spreads over thousands of square miles of ocean , it rapidly approaches the title of worst environmental disaster in U.S. history , even worse than 1989 's Exxon Valdez oil spill . The well is under 5,000 feet of water , and it could take weeks or even months to cap it . This disaster could unfortunately happen at any one of the hundreds of drilling platforms off our coasts , at any moment . It could happen at the drilling sites that the oil industry has proposed opening along the beaches of the Atlantic Coast . Indeed , even before this spill , the oil and gas industry had torn apart the coastal wetlands of the Louisiana Bayou over the years . These drilling operations have caused Louisiana to lose 25 square miles of coastal wetlands , which are natural storm barriers , each year . Another view : Why it wo n't be easy to replace fossil fuels . And it 's hardly just the environmental costs of oil spills that we have to worry about with offshore drilling . The threat to the people who work on these platforms has again become terribly clear . In fact , more than 500 fires on oil platforms in the Gulf have injured or killed dozens of workers in just the past four years , according to the federal Minerals Management Service . We do n't need to pay this price for energy . We have plenty of clean energy solutions in place that will end our dependence on dirty fossil fuels , create good , safe jobs and breathe new life into our economy . One huge example came Thursday , when the Obama administration approved our country 's first offshore wind farm . Our country has huge solar power potential as well . We can also save more oil through simple efficiency measures than could be recovered by new drilling on our coastlines . This oil spill changes everything . We have hit rock-bottom in our fossil fuel addiction . This tragedy should be a wake-up call . It 's time to take offshore drilling off the table for good . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Brune .
Oil spill can have devastating effect on wildlife and shoreline , says Michael Brune . He says we ' ve been assured that the environment is completely safe . Brune : Workers killed , and spill could be nation 's worst environmental disaster . He says U.S. has moratorium on new drilling , plan to wean off fossil fuels .