East Coast lawmakers band against Trump’s proposal
WASHINGTON — State and federal lawmakers from both parties have joined East Coast business interests to persuade the Trump administration to halt its plan for fossil-fuel development in the Atlantic Ocean.
It’s a surprisingly diverse collection of power players: members of Congress, dozens of lawmakers from both red and blue states, nine attorneys general, six governors and thousands of business owners from Florida through the Carolinas and up to New Jersey.
They hope that mix and their economic, not environmental, argument will sway President Donald Trump’s Interior Department as it nears a decision on testing that could open the door to oil and gas exploration, and eventually drilling, off the coast.
“The wall of opposition that has been built up to Atlantic drilling and seismic testing is amazing,” said Frank Knapp, chief executive of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce and president of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast, an organization supported by more than 41,000 businesses and 500,000 commercial fishing families on the East Coast.
Environmental groups have worked for years to stop oil and gas development, focusing on the threat it poses to coastal marine life. Lawmakers and business leaders, however, are raising concerns about the economic effect that seismic testing and drilling could have on the multibillion-dollar coastal tourism and fishing industries.
Time is running out for them to make the case. The Interior Department is now reviewing whether to allow the first-ever seismic tests in the Atlantic and whether to allow oil and natural gas leasing there as well after both activities were barred by the Obama administration.
Ocean-related commerce, from the hotel and restaurant industry to recreational and commercial fishing, generates $95 billion in economic activity each year and supports nearly 1.4 million jobs on the Atlantic coast, members of Congress argued in a recent letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.