Trump Administration Drilling Proposal: Polluters Before People

WASHINGTON  – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will announce a Draft Proposed Plan today for offshore leasing through 2022 that would subject publicly owned coastal waters to dangerous and dirty oil and gas drilling.

Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, made the following statement:

“The administration’s backward-looking approach puts oil and gas profits first—and will place our coastal communities and all they support at risk of the next BP-style disaster. We won’t sacrifice our marine life, ocean habitat and local economies to Trump’s Big Polluter play. We’ll stand with leaders of vision, business owners and fishing families on every coast to protect our oceans and shores.”

BACKGROUND

The existing five-year plan for these areas removed the Atlantic and the Arctic from offshore oil and gas leasing for the period 2017-2022.  In addition, the Obama administration had declared sections of the Atlantic and virtually all of the Arctic Ocean permanently off limits to oil and gas leasing under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).  

For more on how drilling would affect our coastal economies and marine life, see this blog by NRDC’s Senior Oceans Advocate Alexandra Adams.

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.