Pallone & Grijalva: Trump’s Offshore Drilling May Have Disastrous Consequences

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2017



Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), the Ranking Member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03), the Ranking Member on the Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter to Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ryan Zinke today expressing concerns over President Trump’s executive order instructing DOI to consider new oil and gas leasing for offshore drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Friday, could open areas of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans where offshore drilling is currently banned.

“This executive order is the latest in a series of ill-advised actions by the Trump Administration that favor corporate interests over the safety of the environment and our communities,” Pallone and Grijalva wrote to Secretary Zinke. “We believe the review of the leasing program lays the groundwork to eventually weaken key safety regulations that help prevent oil spill disasters, while simultaneously introducing drilling to ocean areas currently off-limits. In doing so, this action greatly increases the threat of a devastating oil spill to these critical and irreplaceable marine ecosystems and puts at risk billions of dollars in states’ tourism revenue.”

The two Committee Ranking Members stressed that the executive order overlooks the irrevocable and widespread harm that oil and gas disasters have had on our nation’s rich and productive marine ecosystems. They pointed to the fact that areas currently closed for Atlantic and Arctic drilling serve as habitat to endangered species and major biodiversity hotspots critical to fisheries, tourism and communities that depend on them.

Pallone and Grijalva wrote that before considering opening new areas for develop, DOI should require oil and gas companies to use existing leases and opportunities in areas open to drilling. For example, oil and gas companies hold leases on approximately 16 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, but have developed only about 26 percent of that acreage.

In their letter to Secretary Zinke the Democrats ask for information, documents, and answers to several questions relating to DOI’s review of the offshore leasing plan, including:

· Please provide all risk assessments and analysis undertaken to determine how lifting the ban on drilling in these areas would not adversely affect fragile ecosystems or damage fishing, restaurant, or tourism interests.
· What additional actions or plans does the Department intend to take to protect coastal communities from the possibility of another catastrophic oil spill?
· How would President Trump’s proposed DOI budget cuts affect the ability of the Department to draft a new 5-year plan, while administering an even greater number of oil and gas leases?

A copy of the letter is available here.

Pallone Blasts Reported Trump Administration Plans to Expand Offshore Drilling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2017



Washington, D.C. –Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) issued the following statement today after reports that the Trump administration is planning an executive order this week seeking an expansion of drilling off the U.S. coastline.

“While the details about what this order will do are scarce, President Trump has made it very clear how important offshore drilling is to his dangerous and reckless anti-environment agenda that threatens‎ the future of our environment and New Jersey’s coast. An oil spill anywhere along the Atlantic Coast would cause severe environmental damage to fisheries, popular beaches and wildlife – which is why members of both parties have stood up against proposals to expand coastal drilling.”

Rep. Pallone has been a longtime leader in the fight to protect the Atlantic coast, sponsoring legislation to prevent offshore drilling. Pallone wrote to the Secretary of the Interior in 2010 voicing strong opposition to a plan to enable drilling in the Atlantic. He did this even before the Deepwater Horizon disaster brought offshore drilling to the forefront of the news.

Pallone was a leader in the fight to remove a dangerous provision from the Obama Administration’s 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that would have authorized new offshore oil and gas leasing along the southern Atlantic coast. And in December, after Pallone led a letter signed by 73 of his colleagues urging a permanent ban to coastal drilling along the Artic and Atlantic coasts, President Obama exercised his authority to do just that – permanently banning offshore drilling in deep water canyons from Virginia to New England, including off the New Jersey coast, and in much of the Arctic Ocean.

Pallone Blasts Reported Trump Administration Plans to Expand Offshore Drilling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2017


Washington, D.C. –Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) issued the following statement today after reports that the Trump administration is planning an executive order seeking an expansion of drilling off the U.S. coastline.

“The Trump administration’s reported plans to expand offshore drilling is just the latest development in its dangerous and reckless anti-environment agenda that threatens the future of our environment and New Jersey’s coast.

“Oil spills don’t respect state borders. The fact remains that opening up the Atlantic Ocean for fossil fuel development is unnecessary, poses a serious threat to our coastal communities, and is the wrong approach. An oil spill anywhere along the Atlantic Coast would cause severe environmental damage to fisheries, popular beaches and wildlife – which is why members of both parties have stood up against proposals to expand coastal drilling.”

Rep. Pallone has been a longtime leader in the fight to protect the Atlantic coast, sponsoring legislation since 2010 to prevent expansions of offshore drilling. Pallone wrote to the Secretary of the Interior in 2010 voicing strong opposition to a plan to enable drilling in the Atlantic. He did this even before the Deepwater Horizon disaster brought offshore drilling to the forefront of the news.

Pallone was a leader in the fight to remove a dangerous provision from the Obama Administration’s 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that would have authorized new offshore oil and gas leasing along the southern Atlantic coast. And in December, after Pallone led a letter signed by 73 of his colleagues urging a permanent ban to coastal drilling along the Artic and Atlantic coasts, President Obama exercised his authority to do just that – permanently banning offshore drilling in deep water canyons from Virginia to New England, including off the New Jersey coast, and in much of the Arctic Ocean.