No One Knows Where This Came FromTrump Bans Offshore Drilling – Mother Jones

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Something weird happened at a Trump campaign appearance in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday. President Trumplong-time antagonist of environmental regulationsand big-timeproponent of oil and gas developmentannounceda decade-long ban on offshore drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. This protects your beautiful Gulf and your beautiful ocean, and it will for a long time to come, Trump said in a speech in Jupiter touting his environmental record. He signed a presidential memorandum extendinga moratoriumon leasing drilling rights off Floridas Gulf Coast and expanded that ban to a portion of the Atlantic Ocean that stretches between Florida and South Carolina. (The area has not been leased out to oil companies yet.)

The decision caught environmentalists and oil industry lobbyists off guard. Its a complete ambush, one industry officialtold Politico. Nobody knows where this came from.

So, what gives? The president has been consistent in his support of offshore drilling pretty much since his first year in office. He made no secret of his intention to reversea memorandum signedby President Barack Obama in 2016 to protect the Arctic and Atlantic seas from drilling. In 2017,Trump directed the Department of the Interior,which oversees offshore drilling leases, to assess new sales of drilling rights in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The following year, the Interior Departmentcame out with a draft plan that would have paved the way for offshore drilling leases in 90 percent of US coastal waterways.

That proposal faced pushback from states whose economies rely on tourism and fishing. Floridas Republican governor at the time, Rick Scott, said heopposed the plan. So did the governors of other states likeNew Jersey,Washington, andCalifornia. The Trump administrationlet Florida opt out of the plan, handing Scott a win as he prepared todo battleagainst Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson for a Senate seat that year. (Scott won by a narrow margin.) The other states werent granted a reprieve.

It doesnt take a genius to connect the dots between what happened in 2018 in Florida and Trumps surprise announcement on Tuesday. Trumps new moratorium on offshore drilling appears to solely apply to states led by Republicans.

Whats more, Florida and Georgia arekey swing statesin the upcoming general election. Trump and Joe Biden areneck and neckin Florida in recent polls. Whichever candidate wins that state gets its large stack of 29 electoral votes. South Carolinaisnt as tight of a race, but one of its Republican senators, Lindsey Graham, is close with Trump andreportedly helped craft the new moratorium.

States with Democratic governors werent as lucky. North Carolina and Virginia, which also have significant resources buried off their coasts,werent included in Trumps moratorium. Trumprecently accusedNorth Carolinas governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, of using the coronavirus pandemic to hurt his reelection effort.

Trumps memorandum could be challenged in court, but theres reason to believe it will stand the test of time. Despite the Trump administrations efforts to undo Obamas 2016 offshore drilling ban in the Arctic, federal courts haveupheld Obamas memorandum so far.

Still, green groups arent convinced that Trump is acting in good faith. If this was more than an election year ploy for Trump, wed have seen a permanent ban on offshore drilling in his first four years, the League of Conservation Voters said in a statement. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is also suspicious. Just months ago, Donald Trump was planning to allow oil and gas drilling off the coast of Florida, the former vice president said in atweet. Now, with 56 days until the election, he conveniently says that he changed his mind. Unbelievable.

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No One Knows Where This Came FromTrump Bans Offshore Drilling - Mother Jones