December 3, 2018 — The Trump administration has approved a first step toward offshore oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic coast.
The National Marine Fisheries Service issued permits Friday for five private companies to conduct offshore seismic tests from New Jersey to Florida.
The tests fire acoustic pulses into the sea floor in search of oil and gas deposits.
Such tests haven’t occurred in the Atlantic as part of hydrocarbon exploration since around the 1980s, according to federal officials, though academic seismic tests have happened more recently.
These permits, which were denied under the Obama administration in 2017, will allow the companies to disturb protected marine mammals during their surveys.