Zinke Visits NJ Despite Planning to Pollute State

Secretary Zinke is supposedly in New Jersey today giving comments at the at the Business Network to Offshore Wind’s International Offshore Partnering Forum. Zinke is tasked with overseeing Trump’s proposal to auction oil and gas drilling rights in the Arctic Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and possibly Pacific waters around the U.S. He ordered his Interior Department to write the new blueprint with the aim of auctioning oil and gas drilling rights off the U.S. East Coast. Trump’s proposal would span the years 2019 to 2024, replacing the Obama plan, which runs through 2022. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“Zinke has a lot of nerve showing up to New Jersey while simultaneously threatening our environment and economy by opening up the coasts to offshore drilling. New Jersey is our national treasure and their harmful proposal to drill will jeopardize our $38 billion coastal economy and fishing industry. The possibility of an oil spill or leak would threaten New Jersey’s entire coastal economy. Our state will not only be at risk from a spill or explosion, but we will see more climate impacts threatening people and property. Offshore drilling would be disastrous for our state’s environment and economy, just as Zinke is disastrous for the lands and seas of our country.

“Donald Trump and Secretary Zinke have declared open season on our oceans with this reckless and dangerous drilling plan. This is the biggest give away to Big Oil companies in history. They are selling out our coast from Alaska all the way to Maine while targeting New Jersey. We have to move beyond fossil foolishness to move forward with wind and wave power and other technologies. While there are five times more jobs in clean energy than fossil fuels, they are pushing for dirty fuels that threatens our economy. We need to stand together to continue to protect our coast to offshore drilling and the disaster that it could bring.”