Saving Seafood

North Carolina: Cooper Warns Zinke of Lawsuit Over Drilling

February 6, 2018 — RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal government and Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration remain on course for a legal battle over the push to open the East Coast to offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling.

After a weekend meeting with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Cooper said he had reiterated his request for an exemption similar to one given to Florida, telling Zinke the state would sue if the Trump administration moves ahead with oil and gas exploration off North Carolina’s coast. Cooper also called on residents to get involved and keep up the fight.

“I call on the citizens of North Carolina to be loud about this issue,” Cooper said during a press conference after the Saturday morning session with Zinke.

Cooper was joined in the discussion at the executive mansion in Raleigh by representatives of the coastal region, who he said conveyed concerns to Zinke about the potential risks to the coast’s unique environment and an economy based on tourism and fisheries.

“I think he heard loud and clear from a cross section of North Carolina that we do not want offshore oil and gas drilling off the coast of North Carolina,” Cooper said. “We’ve been saying since this summer ‘no way, not off our coast.’”

On Friday, Zinke met with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who also asked for an exemption to the proposed leasing program. Since the announcement last summer that Atlantic Coast waters would be reopened to oil and gas leasing, states have been lining up to seek exemptions. The pressure grew in January when Zinke granted Florida an exemption on the grounds that the state’s economy was too heavily dependent on coastal tourism.

Cooper said North Carolina deserves the same exemption extended to Florida and said the state would take the federal government to court if it is not granted.

State Attorney General Josh Stein, who also attended the meeting, said Zinke told the group every governor on the East Coast is opposed to the program. Stein echoed the governor’s threat.

“If we are unsuccessful in convincing the secretary to exempt North Carolina from this offshore drilling program, we will take him to court to protect our coast, our coastal economy and our people,” Stein said.

Cooper also asked for the comment period on the Trump administration’s proposed five-year plan announced Jan. 4 that would open almost all U.S. offshore waters to seismic exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas to be open for an additional 60 days and that public hearings in Wilmington, Morehead City and Kill Devil Hills be added to the schedule. The only public meeting planned in North Carolina is set for Feb. 26 in Raleigh as an “open house” information session, not a public hearing.

“He seemed receptive to that,” Cooper said of the request.

Joining Cooper and Stein for the meeting with Zinke were Department of Environment Quality Secretary Michael Regan; Coastal Resources Commission Chair Renee Cahoon; Stan Riggs, coastal and marine geologist at East Carolina University; Nags Head Mayor Pro Tem Susie Walters; Atlantic Beach Mayor Trace Cooper; Dare County Commission chair Bob Woodard; New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple; Tom Kies, president of Carteret County Chamber of Commerce; and Capt. Dave Timpy, a retired Army Corps of Engineers specialist in coastal engineering who runs a charter fishing business in Wilmington.

Read the full story at Coastal Review Online

 

North Carolina asks firms for seismic information

January 2, 2018 — RALEIGH, N.C. — The state Division of Coastal Management (DCM) has asked four companies to submit more information about proposed seismic testing for offshore oil and gas because the original proposals did not consider the latest scientific studies on the harmful effects to marine life.

According to a press release from the division, documentation to show that the companies’ plans are consistent with state coastal management rules were submitted and approved in 2015.

However, the administration of then-President Barack Obama did not approve the testing, and removed waters off North Carolina and the rest of the East Coast from the offshore drilling plan for 2017-22.

Many local governments along the coast, including Emerald Isle, Morehead City, Atlantic Beach and Beaufort, had urged the president not to OK testing and drilling.

Since then, however, President Donald Trump has restarted the process and directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to develop a new offshore drilling plan, expanding the years it would be valid.

According to the DCM release, additional seismic studies have since been conducted and suggest that shipboard seismic airgun arrays can significantly affect marine life.

Spectrum Geo Inc., GX Technology, MCNV Marine North America and TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. all want permission to tow arrays of the airguns behind ships, sending pulses to the ocean floor to locate oil and gas deposits.

DCM sent the companies letters requiring more information supporting their position that the plans meet state coastal policies.

Southport resident Randy Sturgill, who helped coordinate local and statewide anti-drilling-and-testing opposition efforts in North Carolina for Oceana, an international conservation group, said Friday it was good to see that the state “has its finger on the pulse,” not only on state residents’ feelings about offshore seismic testing and oil and gas drilling, but also on the latest science about the testing.

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

 

NORTH CAROLINA: 3 Marine Fisheries Commission members reappointed, one new member appointed

November 9th, 2016 — Gov. Pat McCrory has reappointed three members of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, but it was his fourth appointment of Nov. 2 that has commercial-fishing interests seething and recreational fishing interests cheering what appears to be a super-majority on the nine-member board for recreationals.

Six days before the election, McCrory re-appointed commissioners Allison Willis, Mark Gorges and Chuck Laughridge, Willis to a commercial seat. Gorges and Laughridge swapped chairs, with Gorges now in a recreational seat and Laughridge in an at-large seat. The fourth appointment, to an at-large seat vacant since the resignation of Wilmington restaurant owner Keith Rhodes last November, went to Brad Koury of Burlington.

The appointment of Koury, described as a “businessman, sportsman and conservationist” certainly didn’t sit well with the commercial fishing industry.

“The appointments announced by Governor McCrory on Nov. 2 are astounding,” said Jerry Schill, president of the N.C. Fisheries Association, a trade group representing commercial fishermen. “The two at-large seats were filled by recreational fishermen, meaning that the (Commission) will now be three from the commercial perspective, five recreational and one scientist. Rather than fill the at-large seats with individuals from a different viewpoint, such as a restaurant owner or seafood consumer, the governor assures the continuing decimation of commercial fishing communities along our coast.”

Schill was also unhappy with the reappointment of Gorges and Laughridge. A lawsuit filed earlier this fall to which the NCFA was a party, alleged that several Commission members violated the N.C. Open Meetings Law, and Schill questioned whether commissioners named in the lawsuit should have kept their seats on the board.

Sammy Corbett, chairman of the nine-member Commission, echoed Schill’s comments about Koury’s appointment, but had no problems with the reappointments.

“I’m disappointed with the appointments. I really was hoping for more balance on the Commission. I expected Alison, Chuck and Mark to be reappointed. That’s good. We have worked with them and have a good relationship,” Corbett said. “I just didn’t think we needed another CCA guy on the Commission.

Read the full story at North Carolina Sportsman