President Trump just tossed aside more than three decades worth of liberal environmental policy. On Thursday the administration announced ambitious plan to expand offshore drilling.
“This is a start on looking at American energy dominance and looking at our offshore assets and beginning a dialogue of when, how, where and how fast those offshore assets should be or could be, developed,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said
“This is a draft program… Nothing is final yet, and our department is continuing to engage the American people to get to our final product.”
The plan would boost the economy by providing jobs and lessening the country’s dependence on foreign oil. Environmentalists should be just as pleased with Trump’s plan as hardened oil tycoons. Increasing the nation’s offshore drilling capabilities would create a huge fund for conservation efforts along the coasts.
Democrats, however, aren’t only the group fighting against offshore drilling.
“I have already asked to immediately meet with Secretary Zinke to discuss the concerns I have with this plan and the crucial need to remove Florida from consideration,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said this week.
Trump irritated a lot of Democrats by choosing Scott Pruitt as his EPA chief and trimming the bloated department of its excess employees. They’re even angrier now that they see Trump was serious about his intention to reform the nation’s environmental policies.
“These ocean waters are not President Trump’s personal playground. They belong to all Americans and the public wants them preserved and protected, not sold off to multinational oil companies,” reads a statement signed by leaders of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters and other fringe liberal groups.
(Source: New York Post)