Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration is accelerating its war on America’s oceans, rolling back safeguards and pollution controls with policies that put coastal communities and priceless wildlife at risk, according to a new column from the Center for American Progress.
As we look ahead to World Oceans Day on June 8 and the first-ever March for the Ocean on June 9, the column exposes an agenda that seeks to radically expand offshore drilling at the expense of America’s marine resources and national heritage.
The attacks started early last year, with U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, executive orders expanding offshore drilling, and attacks on wildlife protected within national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has expanded dangerous offshore drilling and eliminated critical safeguards that were intended to prevent a repeat of the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which killed 11 workers and cost more than $60 billion to clean up. The administration also called for removing protections for protected marine areas and extending the length of the red snapper fishing season in federal waters, despite evidence that this will result in overfishing.
Read the column: Trump’s War on Oceans Continues by Margaret Cooney.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202.478.6327.