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Trump Administration Unveils Plan to Widely Expand Offshore Oil Drilling
In April 2017, Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at ending the ban on offshore drilling in certain areas. Smart Dissent painfully covered that here. In late June, Trump spoke again on the topic (see here), claiming that progress is being made to make his "vision" a reality and sell our environment to the highest bidder.
A major step has now occurred, making this very close to reality rather than just a Trump and Republican wet dream for their massive oil industry donors.
The Trump administration is proposing dramatic changes to policies on offshore leasing for oil and gas, opening the door to radically expand drilling in waters that were protected....
It's the "largest number of lease sales ever proposed, " Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters. The proposed plan [is] to sell offshore drilling leases in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic over a five-year period.... It includes.... about 90 percent of the outer continental shelf.
The oil industry has begged for this for decades. They are thrilled their endless bribery money to get their minions into office have paid off.
The proposed change is welcomed by the oil and gas industry. In a statement, the National Ocean Industries Association praised Zinke "for offering the broadest possible acreage for potential inclusion in our nation's next offshore leasing program."
Nearly every state along the coast are against this which includes many Republican governors.
....oil and gas exploration is opposed by governors from New Jersey to Florida, nearly a dozen attorneys general, more than 100 U.S. lawmakers and the Defense Department.
....Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he asked for an immediate meeting with Zinke to "discuss the concerns I have with this plan and the crucial need to remove Florida from consideration." Governors in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, California, Oregon and Washington have....opposed drilling off their states' coasts. The Pacific governors stated: "For more than 30 years, our shared coastline has been protected from further federal drilling and we'll do whatever it takes to stop this reckless, short-sighted action."
We must fight!
....environmental organizations are alarmed and stress that it could place wildlife and coastal communities at risk of a spill. "The proposal would expose the Arctic waters — our last undeveloped ocean — to drilling, put the Atlantic coast on the chopping block for the first time since 1983, open the Pacific coast — which has not seen federal drilling for decades, and further threaten the debilitated Gulf of Mexico," said a statement signed by 64 organizations and environmental groups.
Environmental advocates are hoping that the plan will be vastly changed before it takes effect in 2019. "Now is the time to fight this," Oceana campaign director Diane Hoskins said. "Opening up our oceans to offshore drilling is a forever decision and so we'll be very vocal and fighting this plan."
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