Two Democratic lawmakers from New Jersey said Monday they would sponsor legislation to ban offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) timed their announcement for the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill at a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico.

It comes as the Obama administration is considering auctioning some drilling rights in the Atlantic, somewhere between Virginia and Georgia.

“Imagine the devastation an oil spill in the Atlantic would cause — not just to our home state of New Jersey, but to states up and down the East Coast,” Menendez said in a statement.

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