PRESS Statement

Date:       January 9, 2018
From:      Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast (BAPAC)

Subject:   Trump Administration Drops Florida From Offshore Drilling Plan (NYT’s story)

Contact:  Frank Knapp, President/CEO, 803-497-3204 (w), 803-600-6874 (c),
fknapp@protectingtheatlanticcoast.org

Today the New York Times reported that following a meeting with Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott, the Secretary of the Department of Interior Ryan Zinke unilaterally removed the waters off the Florida coast from being considered for offshore drilling for oil and gas.  Just last Thursday Zinke announced that all outer continental shelf waters from Maine to Key West were included in a draft oil leasing plan.

Below is a statement by Frank Knapp Jr., president and CEO of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast (BAPAC).  The organization has over 41,000 businesses and 500,000 commercial fishing families supporting its mission of opposing oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Atlantic.

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“Secretary Zinke is quoted upon announcing that he was removing Florida waters from being included in a five-year oil leasing plan that he was doing so because he supports Governor Scott’s “position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.’

“I want to invite Secretary Zinke to visit the coasts of every Atlantic Coast state with their respective Governors.  He will find that each is unique and generates tourism, commercial fishing and recreation dollars that drive their local and state economies.  Every one of these states deserves Mr. Zinke reaching the same conclusion to continue the ban on offshore drilling on their outer continental shelf.”

“While the other Atlantic Coast states don’t have a Mar-A-Lago to protect and some don’t have Republican Governor’s to plead their case, they do have thousands of businesses that depend on a healthy ocean for their success.  Offshore drilling for oil is just as incompatible with the local economies of the rest of the Atlantic Coast states as it is with Florida’s economy.”

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