First off, let me say welcome to 2018! I hope you brought in the New Year with a bang. I think many of us can say 2017 was quite interesting, and you probably expect 2018 to be the same! It has been a while since my last posting, but expect to see more postings from me in the year!
Now, focusing on a major environmental announcement by the Trump Administration…
The Washington Post reported that the Trump Administration has put forward a plan to permit drilling in most U.S. continental shelf waters, including protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans. The Interior Department announced the plan, where it stated that states could profit from natural resource extraction through royalties.
However, a bipartisan coalition of governors in the potentially affected states, from Maryland’s Republican governor Larry Hogan, to North Carolina’s Democratic governor Roy Cooper, to Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott, all opposed the plan, citing impacts to tourism and concern about the environmental health of the coasts. Even Chris Christie, a former potential Trump Cabinet candidate and the outgoing New Jersey Republican governor, is opposed to the plan. Now it is important to note that even the Obama administration was to consider drilling in the southern Atlantic between Virginia and Georgia but abandoned in March 2016 because of concerns raised by the Navy and complaints from residents of coastal communities.
It’s interesting to see in a time of extreme partisanship that there is bipartisan support against the plan. With Deepwater Horizon still fresh on people’s mind, the governors obviously do not believe the promise of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees offshore leasing, that the environment would be protected. It also makes you double-take when the administration suspended a study conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine on the safety of offshore oil and gas drilling platforms in December 2017.
The question is do the states have the power to hold this up if they wanted to? California and Florida have banned drilling in state waters, but with the Trump Administration moving to drill there, this will undoubtedly bring up the whole federal vs state rights debate. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was noncommittal when asked about the states’ veto powers.
Nevertheless, many environmental groups are opposed to this. The Natural Resources Defense Council calls this move “dangerous” and a “backward looking approach” to energy supply. I happened to think the same – I believe we should be finding ways to reduce the country’s oil usage and increase energy efficiency. Groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, who published “Half the Oil, and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy have put out research that shows that the country can significantly reduce its energy usage while improving the economy.
Whether the Administration moves forward or backs down is still uncertain. But expect residents of potentially affected communities – and those who have been negatively impacted by the oil industry – to have their voices heard. If you are in an affected community, will you plan to speak up?
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