Saving Seafood

Cantwell, Murray Introduce Bill to Permanently Ban Drilling Off West Coast

February 5, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

This week, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the West Coast Ocean Protection Act to permanently ban offshore drilling in federal waters off the coast of Washington, Oregon, and California.

The bill introduction comes after President Biden issued an executive order halting new federal oil and gas drilling leases. The senators’ bill would make the moratorium permanent in federal waters off the West Coast. This would prevent future administrations from opening up West Coast waters to drilling, which the Trump administration attempted to do.

“Washington’s $30 billion dollar maritime economy supports over 146,000 jobs from fisheries, trade, tourism and recreation—but it could all be devastated in an instant by an oil spill,” Senator Cantwell said. “We must permanently ban offshore drilling on the West Coast to protect our coastal communities, economies, and ecosystems against the risk of an oil spill.”

“The Pacific Ocean provides vital natural resources for Washington state, and off-shore drilling puts everything from local jobs and ecosystems at risk,” Senator Murray said. “We need this permanent ban to safeguard our coastal environment and our state’s economy, including fisheries, outdoor recreation, and so much more.”

Washington’s maritime sector contributes more than $21.4 billion in gross business income, and directly employs nearly 69,500 people. Including indirect and induced impacts, the state’s maritime economy is worth $30 billion in economic activity, and supports more than 146,000 jobs in the fishing, seafood processing, shipbuilding, trade, and other maritime sectors. The state’s maritime economy also provides jobs with substantially better pay than the average for all industries. The average pay for a job in Washington is $52,000, while maritime workers are paid an average of $70,800 — totaling over $4.7 billion in wages. Tourism on the coast adds thousands of jobs for anglers, charter boats, guides, restaurants, hotels and more. Oil spills and activities related to exploration pose a grave threat to these jobs, which rely on clean water and healthy oceans.

Senators Cantwell and Murray have led the fight to ban oil drilling on the West Coast, introducing similar legislation in multiple previous congresses.

In addition to Cantwell and Murray, the legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Companion legislation will be introduced by Congressman Jared Huffman (D, CA-02) in the House of Representatives.

JACQUELINE SAVITZ: A pause on offshore drilling is a good first step. Let’s make it permanent.

February 3, 2021 — President Joe Biden hit the ground sprinting on his first day of office. On day one he rejoined the Paris Agreement, and now he has announced a pause on offshore oil and gas leasing. It’s exciting to hear the president’s plan to return science to policy decision-making, even advancing his science adviser to a cabinet-level position. These encouraging moves will certainly translate to more effective action on climate.

Oil and gas are killing us. Burning fossil fuels is driving climate change, which is causing a wave of extinction and disasters that devastate property and the environment, and cost human lives. But President Biden has committed to aggressively address the climate crisis, which gives me great hope that we can work together to permanently protect our climate and coasts from offshore oil and gas.

Permanently ending new offshore oil and gas leasing in U.S. waters would prevent the release of a catastrophic amount of greenhouse gas emissions, which are driving ever larger and more intense wildfires, hurricanes and floods. A new report from Oceana estimates that permanent protection against offshore drilling would prevent 19 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and $720 billion in damages to people, property and the environment.

Read the full opinion piece at USA Today

Rep. Huffman to Introduce Bills to Protect Pacific & Arctic Oceans from Offshore Drilling

January 28, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):

Today, Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) announced he will reintroduce this week the West Coast Ocean Protection Act and the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act to permanently protect these places from the dangers of offshore oil drilling. This comes as President Biden continues to sign a series of executive orders focused on combatting climate change and moving the United States away from fossil fuels and expanding alternative, renewable energy, including suspension of new offshore leases under the next five-year plan.

“Offshore drilling poses unacceptable risks, and the science and public opinion are clear: we should not put our oceans and fisheries, coastal communities, economies, and planet at risk just to enrich the fossil fuel industry,” said Rep. Huffman. “It’s past time that we permanently ban new offshore drilling and show our united commitment to combating climate change and  to give the Pacific Coast and the Arctic Ocean the protections their communities and ecosystems deserve.”

Rep. Huffman’s introduction of the West Coast Ocean Protection Act and the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act comes alongside several other House members’ initiatives to protect coastlines from offshore drilling nationwide. Senator Feinstein also leads the West Coast Ocean Protection Act in the Senate, introduced today, with support from all West coast senators.

“California understands all too well the danger that offshore drilling poses to our oceans and coastal economies,” said Senator Feinstein. “President Biden is committed to reducing our carbon emissions, and I applaud his decision to enact a temporary moratorium. This bill takes that action a step further, codifying the proposal so future administrations can’t overturn it. It’s time to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along the West Coast. Doing so represents a giant step toward the vital goal of building a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.”

Read the full release here

Lawsuit claims Gulf of Mexico drilling permits violate Endangered Species Act

October 23, 2020 — Environmental groups went to federal court Oct. 21 with a lawsuit claiming the Trump administration is violating the Endangered Species Act by an inadequate interagency consultation on oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The San Francisco-based legal foundation Earthjustice filed the action on behalf of the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The lawsuit attacks an assessment of the hazards that offshore oil and gas drilling and production pose to endangered marine species, issued in March by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In an earlier 2018 lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida, Earthjustice and other groups complained NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had unreasonably delayed developing a new biological opinion – or “BiOp” in the argot of federal bureaucracy – to evaluate impacts as required by the Endangered Species Act.

The law requires certification that government actions – such as permitting offshore drilling – won’t harm endangered species. The last biological opinion was issued in 2007; BP’s Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill in 2010, with its sweeping environmental impacts and losses of marine life, triggered the process for a reassessment of the dangers.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Trump plan to allow seismic blasts in Atlantic search for oil appears dead

October 2, 2020 — The Trump administration’s plan to drill off the Atlantic Coast for the first time in more than half a century is on the brink of collapse because of a court development Thursday that blocked the first steps to offshore oil and gas exploration, as well as the president’s recent actions that undermine his own proposal.

Opponents of the drilling declared victory on Thursday after the government acknowledged that permits to allow seismic blasting in the ocean — the first step toward locating oil deposits for drilling — will expire next month and not be renewed.

Nine state attorneys general and several conservation groups filed a federal lawsuit early last year to block seismic blasting, arguing it could harm endangered whales and other marine animals. The court battle dragged out so slowly that, in the meantime, time ran out on the permits.

Donna Wieting, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a court declaration, released Tuesday, that her agency “has no authority to extend the terms of those [permits] upon their expiration. Further, NMFS has no basis for reissuing or renewing these [permits].” The five companies that were granted permits would have to restart the months-long process leading to approval or denial, Wieting said.

Also on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel of South Carolina held a telephone conference with all parties of the lawsuit to determine how to move forward. The judge is expected to declare the case moot because the seismic mapping cannot occur without the permits, said Michael Jasny, who was on the call and is director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Trump’s Offshore Oil Ban to Halt Coastal Wind Farms Too

September 30, 2020 — President Donald Trump’s decision to rule out energy development along the coasts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas will bar not just offshore oil and gas drilling — but coastal wind farms too.

The broad reach of Trump’s recent orders, which was confirmed by the Interior Department agency that oversees offshore energy development, comes as renewable developers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars snapping up the rights to build wind farms along the U.S. East Coast.

At issue are recent Trump memos ruling out new oil and gas leasing along Florida, Georgia and South and North Carolina from July 1, 2022 until June 30, 2032, issued after some Republicans pressed for a drilling ban and as the president courts voters concerned about the environment. On Friday, Trump said he would expand the offshore energy moratorium to include Virginia, though he has not yet issued a directive encompassing the territory.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

NORTH CAROLINA: Questions Linger on Offshore Drilling, Seismic

September 25, 2020 — Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., announced this week that President Trump had agreed to prevent drilling for oil and natural gas off the North Carolina coast, but the president has yet to speak publicly on the matter, and his administration says it is still moving forward with permitting for seismic exploration in the Atlantic.

Tillis, whom polls show trailing his Democratic Party challenger Cal Cunningham, announced Monday that Trump had agreed to add North Carolina to a multistate moratorium on Atlantic offshore drilling announced earlier this month.

The president announced Sept. 8 during an event in Jupiter, Florida, an order to extend the moratorium on offshore drilling on Florida’s Gulf Coast and expand it to Florida’s Atlantic Coast, as well as the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. North Carolina was not included at the time.

Tillis said Monday that he had spoken with Trump who agreed North Carolina would be included in the presidential memorandum withdrawing new leasing for offshore oil and gas developments for the next 12 years.

Also on Monday, the Department of Justice filed a document with the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, stating that Trump’s memorandum “has no legal effect” on the status of the applications to conduct seismic surveys in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf that are pending before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

Cooper urges Trump administration to include North Carolina in offshore oil drilling moratorium

September 16, 2020 — Governor Roy Cooper said he’s reached out to President Donald Trump and his administration to include North Carolina in the recently announced moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Last week, Trump extended a ten-year moratorium on offshore oil drilling for South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but did not include North Carolina in the executive order.

“I am deeply concerned and disappointed that you did not include North Carolina in the moratorium,” Cooper wrote in a letter to President Trump on Tuesday. “Offshore drilling threatens North Carolina’s coastal economy and environment and offers our state minimal economic benefit. Accepted science tells us that there is little, if any, oil worth drilling for off North Carolina’s coast, and the risks of offshore drilling far outweigh the benefits.”

Read the full story at WECT

MASSACHUSETTS: Markey in New Bedford Dumps on Trump Offshore Drilling Move

September 14, 2020 — Fresh off a Democratic primary win, Sen. Ed Markey made a stop in New Bedford Saturday where he blasted a recent Trump move to enact a 10-year ban on offshore drilling for oil and gas – but only in three Republican-controlled southern coastal states.

“He’s fishing for votes in Florida, instead of protecting the fishing industry of Massachusetts,” said Markey to those gathered near the city’s hurricane barrier and harbor walk. “He knows he is not going to win up here in Massachusetts, and as a result is willing to endanger the fishing and the tourism industry.”

President Donald Trump last Tuesday announced a new moratorium on oil and gas extraction off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, but did not say why he chose those three states. An existing moratorium covering Florida’s gulf coast will stay in place, and Trump extended that ban to the Atlantic coast.

“This protects your beautiful gulf and your beautiful ocean, and it will for a long time to come,” the president said during a signing ceremony in Jupiter, Florida. “Who would have thought? Trump is the great environmentalist.”

Read the full story at WBSM

NC environmentalists alarmed after Trump order bans offshore drilling in nearby states

September 10, 2020 — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday in Florida imposing a 10-year moratorium on offshore drilling in waters from Florida to South Carolina, leaving North Carolina open to potential activity.

Under the order, leases of areas along the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina for the purposes of offshore exploration or development are prohibited between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2032. What is not clear is why the order omits North Carolina and Virginia, where residents have been vocally opposed to offshore drilling, often citing the potential impact to fisheries and coastal tourism.

Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney in the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office, said, “There has been no explanation for why to stop at the South Carolina line, and based on what we know, there is no basis for that decision at all. We all know there is every bit as much worth protecting here in North Carolina as below.”

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer