Saving Seafood

Gloucester Times: United against offshore drilling

January 12, 2018 — If President Trump truly wants to open the nation’s coastline to drilling for oil and gas, he’ll have a battle on his hands. And in a rare moment of political unity, he’ll have to fight both Democrats and Republicans.

The administration’s plan, announced last week by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, would open 90 percent of the nation’s coastal waters to development by private companies.

Such a free-for-all could prove disastrous for the marine environment and the industries that rely on it, such as tourism and fishing. Those economies on the Gulf Coast are still struggling to recover after the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010, the largest in American history.

Locally, the president’s proposal has once again made a target of Gloucester’s fishing industry.

America’s oldest fishing port has spent the better part of four decades fighting off attempts to turn Georges Bank into a de facto oil field, and for good reason: It’s a spectacularly bad idea.

Located about 100 miles off the coast of Cape Ann, Georges Bank, home to species ranging from cod and haddock to lobster and scallops, has long been one of the world’s richest fishing grounds. Generations of Gloucestermen have worked the waters, a tradition that continues even today in the face of heavy regulation. Georges is as much a part of Gloucester as Main Street.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Times

 

Massachusetts: Fed’s offshore oil plan raises local concerns

January 12, 2018 — The possibility of having an offshore oil rig a handful of miles from Cape beaches is drawing concern from elected officials and preservation groups.

The Trump administration at the turn of the new year released its draft proposal that would enable energy companies to lease large swaths of ocean and drill for oil and gas in federal waters off both coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Federal waters typically begin three miles from shore.

“Reckless does not begin to describe the Trump Administration’s decision to expand offshore oil and gas drilling coast-to-coast. This unprecedented move ignores concerns expressed by military leaders and the deep and widespread bipartisan opposition voiced by municipal and state representatives,” Rep. William Keating (D-Ninth Congressional District) said in a Jan. 5 statement.

“Allowing this drilling threatens the safety of our waterfront communities, the health of our oceans, and the future of our climate – not to mention the havoc it could wreak on the local economies of coastal communities, like those across New England, who count on fresh fish and clean beaches for their seafood and tourism industries,” he added.

The five-year plan is detailed in a document titled “2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program, and is online at boem.gov.

The proposal, a few hundred pages long and broken into geographic territories, shows Massachusetts in the northern Atlantic section. The draft proposes two leases in the north Atlantic.

Read the full story at the Wellfleet Wicked Local

 

North Carolina: Cooper Petitions For Drilling Exemption

January 12, 2018 — RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper Wednesday petitioned Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke to grant North Carolina an exemption from the draft plan to open U.S. coastal waters to offshore drilling, just as Zinke granted for Florida.

After Zinke’s announcement Jan. 4 that nearly all U.S. coastal waters would be opened up to allow new offshore oil and gas drilling as part of the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019-2024– compared to the current program where 94 percent of the waters are off limits — bipartisan governors have spoken out against the plan.

On Tuesday night, Zinke tweeted that after meeting with Gov. Rick Scott, Florida would be exempted from the plan.

Cooper has since requested to discuss with Zinke the risks of seismic testing and drilling off the state’s coast and demand an exemption for North Carolina like Florida received, according to a release from the governor’s office.

“The Trump Administration, through their decision on Florida, has admitted that offshore drilling is a threat to coastal economies and tourism,” Cooper said in a statement. “Offshore drilling holds the same risks for North Carolina as it does for Florida and North Carolina deserves the same exemption. As I said last summer, not off our coast.”

Read the full story at the Coastal Review

 

Maine’s congressional delegation unites against drilling off New England coast

January 12, 2018 — U.S. Reps. Bruce Poliquin and Chellie Pingree of Maine are among the co-sponsors of a bill that would prohibit gas drilling off the coast of New England.

Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King on Thursday signed on to a similar measure introduced in the Senate.

The House bill, which is also supported by representatives from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, comes in response to a plan announced by President Donald Trump’s administration last week to expand drilling in U.S. coastal waters.

“I am opposed to oil drilling off the coast of our state of Maine,” said Poliquin in a written statement. “So much of our state’s economy and tens of thousands of Maine jobs along our coast depend on our marine and tourism industries. I am committed to protecting Maine’s unique natural resources.”

Pingree has also vowed to fight the president’s policy.

“President Trump’s offshore drilling plan is unprecedented and will face major opposition from Mainers,” Pingree said in a statement last week.

The House bill was introduced Thursday with Rep. David N. Cicilline, R-Rhode Island, as the lead sponsor. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have also announced their opposition to Trump’s plan and wrote a letter to that effect to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke earlier this week.

“With our environment so closely tied to the vitality of Maine’s economy, we cannot risk the health of our ocean on a shortsighted proposal that could impact Maine people for generations,” Collins and King said in a joint statement.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Senators from 12 states seek offshore drilling exemptions like Florida’s

January 12, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Twenty-two Democratic U.S. senators from 12 states on Thursday joined the chorus of local representatives seeking exemptions from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s newly proposed offshore drilling plan, after his surprise move on Tuesday to shield Florida.

Zinke surprised lawmakers, governors, and industry groups on Tuesday night by announcing that Florida would be removed from the Interior Department’s proposal to open up over 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas leasing.

Zinke had met in Tallahasee, Florida’s capital, with Republican Governor Rick Scott, who told the Interior chief that drilling puts his state’s coastal tourism economy at risk. Scott is widely expected to challenge Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, who is up for re-election this year.

The White House dismissed suggestions that Florida’s exemption was a political favor to Scott. “I am not aware of any political favor that that would have been part of,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

“Just like Florida, our states are unique with vibrant coastal economies,” wrote the 22 senators, who include Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California. “Providing all of our states with the same exemption from dangerous offshore oil and gas drilling would ensure that vital industries from tourism to recreation to fishing are not needlessly placed in harm’s way,” they wrote.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Zinke intends to meet with every coastal governor affected by the agency’s proposed offshore drilling plan, a process that could take a year.

Democrats are not alone in pressuring Zinke to exempt their states from drilling. South Carolina’s Republican Governor Henry McMaster asked Zinke for an exemption, citing the value of his state’s coastal tourist economy.

Read the full story at Reuters

 

Portland Press Herald: Offshore drilling threatens important Maine industries

January 12, 2018 — The Trump administration Tuesday removed the waters off Florida – and only Florida – from the list of areas newly open to offshore drilling, and in doing so made a compelling case that the Maine coast should be removed as well.

After opposition from Republican Gov. Rick Scott, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Florida would not be part of a plan to make more than 90 percent of the outer continental shelf available by lease to energy extraction companies. Florida, Zinke said, was “unique,” with its coasts “heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.”

Sound familiar?

Not only is Maine’s $6 billion-a-year tourism industry largely dependent on a clean and picturesque coastline, so too is the $1.7 billion-a-year lobster industry. Together, they have an economic impact far greater than the fossil fuel industry ever could here.

It should go without saying that a spill on par with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which pumped 215 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing $17 billion in damages and effects on wildlife and coastal areas that are still seen today, would be catastrophic for the state. But even routine seismic testing and the everyday extraction of oil and gas could affect the fishery and degrade the coastline.

Read the full editorial at the Portland Press Herald

 

Florida Is Exempted From Coastal Drilling. Other States Ask, ‘Why Not Us?’

January 11, 2018 — WASHINGTON — At 5:20 on Tuesday evening, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tweeted a photo of himself at the Tallahassee airport with Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, announcing that he had decided, after meeting with Governor Scott, to exempt the state from a new Trump administration plan to open up most of the nation’s coastline to offshore oil drilling.

It was a sudden and unexpected change to a plan that President Trump had celebrated just five days before, and it took lawmakers and governors from both parties by surprise. It also gave Governor Scott, a Republican who is widely expected to run for the Senate this year, a clear political boost in that race. Florida lawmakers of both parties have long opposed offshore drilling, especially after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill sent tarballs to the shores of a state where the economy relies heavily on tourism. Mr. Zinke’s sudden flip-flop on Florida drilling allows Governor Scott to tout the decision as evidence of his influence with the White House.

Mr. Trump’s critics say the move highlights the president’s willingness to blatantly use the nation’s public lands and waters as political bargaining chips.

It also appears to illustrate the clumsiness with which the Trump administration drafts federal policies. By publicly putting forth the comprehensive new coastal drilling plan and then abruptly announcing a major change to it less than a week later, with little evident public or scientific review, the Interior Department appears to have opened itself to a wave of legal challenges.

Within hours of Mr. Zinke’s tweet, governors in other coastal states began demanding their own drilling exemptions.

Read the full story at the New York Times

New Jersey: Trump Saves Florida, Not Jersey Shore, From Offshore Oil Drilling

January 10, 2018 — The Trump administration exempted Florida from its plans to open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling. But the Jersey Shore and its tourism industry won’t get the same break.

The U.S. Interior Department announced this week that it would exclude Florida and cited the potential impact on the Sunshine State’s tourism industry. Despite tourism have impact on the entire coast’s economy, however, the decision left the rest of nearly all U.S. waters, including the Atlantic, open to offshore drilling.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said President Trump, who owns the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, directed him to rebuild the offshore oil and gas program “in a manner that supports our national energy policy and also takes into consideration the local and state voice.”

“Florida is unique and its coast is heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver,” Zinke said. “As a result of today’s discussion and Gov. (Rick) Scott’s leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms.”

The decision drew criticism from New Jersey leaders, all of whom – Republican and Democrat – universally oppose drilling off the Jersey Shore. Coastal leaders and environmentalists believe a spill anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean would cause environmental damage all along the coast.

Read the full story at the Toms River Patch

 

Doug Clark: North Carolina deserves the same protection as Florida

January 10, 2018 — North Carolina deserves the same consideration as Florida when it comes to offshore oil and gas drilling.

The Trump administration said Tuesday it will remove the Florida coast from its plan to open virtually all U.S. offshore waters to fossil fuel development.

“I support the governor’s position that Florida is unique and its coast is heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said, according to a news release from Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office.

Florida’s coast certainly is “heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver,” but it is not unique in that.

So is North Carolina’s coast, a point made by N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper last week:

“Offshore drilling represents a critical threat to our coastal economy. Protecting North Carolina families and businesses is my top priority, and we will pursue every option to prevent oil drilling near North Carolina’s beaches, coastal communities, and fishing waters.”

In his statement, Zinke noted:

“President Trump has directed me to rebuild our offshore oil and gas program in a manner that supports our national energy policy and also takes into consideration the local and state voice.”

That voice, as represented by North Carolina’s governor and the elected leaders of many coastal communities, says don’t drill. The North Carolina voice also deserves to be heard in Washington.

Read the full opinion piece at the Greensboro News & Record

 

Coastal governors oppose Trump’s offshore drilling plan

January 5, 2018 — Governors along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts are opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to open almost all U.S. waters to oil and natural gas drilling.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Thursday a draft proposal that would allow offshore drilling for crude oil and natural gas on the Atlantic Coast and in the Arctic, reversing the Obama’s administration’s block in those areas. It also permits drilling along the Pacific Coast as well as more possibilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the plan, spanning the years 2019 to 2024, more than 90 percent of the total acres on the Outer Continental Shelf would be made available for leasing.

Zinke said the Interior Department has identified 47 potential lease sales, including seven in the Pacific and nine off the Atlantic coast. That would mark a dramatic shift in policy, not just from the Obama era. The last offshore lease sale for the East Coast was in 1983 and for the West Coast in 1984.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and ally of President Trump, quickly said no thanks to Zinke’s plan, citing drilling as a threat to the state’s tourism industry.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner