The controversy over drilling for oil in the Atlantic Ocean has been reignited by the election of Donald Trump, and environmentalists and coastal businesses say it could be the first major fault line that divides them from the new president.<\/p>\n
The Obama administration has moved to restrict access to offshore oil drilling leases in the Atlantic, as well as off Alaska. Commercial oil production has never happened off the East Coast \u2014 and environmentalists consider that a major victory during Obama\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
But President-elect Trump has said that he intends to use all available fuel reserves for energy self-sufficiency \u2014 and that it\u2019s time to be opening up offshore drilling.<\/p>\n
While supporters say that expanded oil exploration is poised to become one of Trump\u2019s signature accomplishments, environmentalists and other opponents see oil drilling policy as a looming conflict. Jacqueline Savitz, vice president of the ocean conservationist group Oceana, said she fears a return to the hard-fought struggles environmentalists faced with the previous Republican administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping we\u2019re not about to fall back into the \u2018drill, baby, drill\u2019 way of thinking,\u201d she said. \u201cOffshore drilling in the Atlantic is not a good investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American Petroleum Institute, a key voice of the oil and gas industries, has long said more aggressive drilling is needed for the U.S. to remain a world leader in energy production. The group accused Obama in May of lacking a long-term \u201cvision\u201d for fossil fuels extraction; its leaders say that Trump\u2019s presidency represents a new dawn and that they intend to hold him to his word about fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a candidate, President-elect Trump pledged to pursue an energy approach that would include opening federal lands for oil and gas production including offshore areas,\u201d said institute spokesman Michael Tadeo.<\/p>\n
Early signs suggest Trump will make good on his plans for more aggressive drilling.<\/p>\n
One of his favorites to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a prominent rejecter of the scientific consensus on climate change. He is a longtime ally of the petroleum industry and a critic of the agency he would lead.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s favorites for energy secretary include Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm and drilling proponent Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.<\/p>\n
The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment. Trump has said that it\u2019s \u201cincredible that we\u2019re going slow on drilling,\u201d and that he supports coastal drilling when it \u201ccan be done responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s stance threatens to put a political promise ahead of science, said Cascade Sorte, a professor of biology with a focus on marine systems at the University of California, Irvine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned there might not be the data that we need about what we\u2019re destroying before we destroy it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Gulf of Mexico is the main offshore area that the U.S. plumbs for oil and gas. But in March 2010, Obama\u2019s administration released a report that said the Gulf alone can\u2019t be expected to meet increasing energy demands. The report included the possibility of opening up offshore Virginia for oil and gas exploration, and the administration signaled leases in the middle and southern East Coast were possible.<\/p>\n
The plan got immediate pushback from environmental groups, who feared it would damage ecosystems. A month later, the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico put a hold on plans for expanding drilling.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists say any attempt to reverse Obama\u2019s restrictions on Atlantic and Alaskan drilling would galvanize resistance, as happened after the Gulf spill \u2014 and before that, following the 1969 Santa Barbara, California, oil spill and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster in Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf President-elect Trump tries to undo any of those measures, he will be rejecting both science and the people and he will meet opposition,\u201d said Greenpeace spokesman Perry Wheeler.<\/p>\n
Democratic senators on both coasts have called for Obama to block any possibility of Pacific or Atlantic drilling before Trump takes office.<\/p>\n
Many Alaska officials strongly back opening the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the U.S. portion of the Arctic Ocean to drilling. But Obama\u2019s administration last week announced a five-year offshore drilling plan that blocks the sale of new oil and gas drilling rights there.<\/p>\n
The administration also has announced the Atlantic would not be included in the next round of offshore oil leases, available from 2017 to 2022. Connie Gillette, who oversees leases for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said that for now, the soonest any leases could be offered is 2023 to 2028.<\/p>\n
Among those opposed to Atlantic drilling is Rep. Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican, who says his opposition dovetails with the conservative value of local control, including of natural resources. He said he is waiting for Trump to settle in before engaging him on the issue.<\/p>\n
Many coastal business owners and residents have taken stands against Atlantic drilling, saying it would endanger key industries, such as commercial fishing and tourism. Frank Knapp, a South Carolina businessman who is the co-founder of the 12,000-member Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast, said they\u2019ll fight any attempts to drill once Trump takes over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what his personal convictions are, but I do know … a Republican Congress wants to drill every place they can, including off the Atlantic Coast, and we\u2019re very concerned that they will push Trump to accomplish that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The controversy over drilling for oil in the Atlantic Ocean has been reignited by the election of Donald Trump, and environmentalists and coastal businesses say it could be the first major fault line that divides them from the new president. The Obama administration has moved to restrict access to offshore oil drilling leases in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13932"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}