America’s oceans and coasts are amazing resources that have benefited our economy, our culture and our way of life for centuries. In New England our ocean and coasts are also home to some of the country’s most unique and valuable wildlife areas and serve as refuge for endangered wildlife species. At the same time, New England’s coastal communities continue to depend on the resources, tourism and outstanding quality of life that our ocean and coasts provide.

Our oceans and coasts face great challenges, and these challenges are growing tougher. As my cool surfing colleague Robin Just has noted, sea levels are rising 3 to 4 times faster along the east coast than the global average, according a new study by the United States Geological Survey. The rising waters put us at unique risk from the changes that are happening to our ocean and will “increase the vulnerability of coastal cities to flooding, and beaches and wetlands to deterioration,” according to the report. How will we solve these challenges?

Thanks to the National Ocean Policy, we have a better way to make management decisions and to create solutions by using the best data, latest information and, most importantly, by working together. At its core, the National Ocean Policy directs federal agencies to coordinate management activities, implement a science-based system of decision making, support safe and sustainable access and ocean uses, respect cultural practices and maritime heritage, and increase scientific understanding of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems. Regional Ocean Planning, a science-based process of improving decisions about ocean resources before conflict arises, involves everyone who has a stake in ocean management, including towns and cities, scientists, fishermen, conservation groups, recreational users, and businesses. Through better planning, the National Ocean Policy will allow us to take full advantage of our resources in a sustainable manner which will improve the health of the United States environment and economy.

The National Ocean Policy turns two years old on July 19, and while the National Ocean Council is making great strides, so much more is necessary to ensure that we are using this important tool to tackle these great challenges. Given how important fisheries, coastal tourism and other ocean industries are to our region’s economy and way of life, we need New England’s governors and federal officials to support the full implementation of the National Ocean Policy.

The Obama Administration says more oil is being produced in the United States than anytime in the last eight years. One news outlet reports that the boom times for the oil industry have meant an increase in jobs for college students. And then we have this statement from the Tulsa World newspaper as reported in RIGZONE: “A weekly rig count tabulated by Baker Hughes Inc. showed the number of working U.S. oil rigs at 1,293, more than 50 percent higher than the 801 recorded a year ago. In fact, the oil rig count is the highest since Baker Hughes separated oil and natural gas rigs in its weekly tally in 1987.”

But tomorrow — Tuesday March 13^th — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts will try to pass a 78 page love letter to the oil industry amendment to the Surface Transportation bill which will require that half of all the acres in each region of our nation’s oceans be leased for more oil drilling. The Roberts amendment would also require oil leases in state waters of any state where the governor simply requests leasing.

On Tuesday morning call your US Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE THE ROBERTS AMENDMENT.

Sen. Roberts says more drilling will put oil on the international market and this will bring down gas prices. Does this sound right to you?

The Roberts amendment would mandate oil drilling in New England’s ocean no matter the many tremendous reasons to not have offshore drilling here. This same approach was defeated last May. Please help defeat the Roberts amendment again.

On Tuesday morning call your US Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE THE ROBERTS AMENDMENT.

You can also find your Senators on the web and call their office directly. Urge them to vote against the Roberts amendment to the Surface Transportation bill.

Short Memories Make Bad Legislators - Oppose the Roberts Amendment

Haphazard development, lack of coordination and poorly informed decisions can not only cause our beaches to be polluted and wildlife habitat to decline, but it can cost a loss of jobs and economic benefits to New England’s coastal communities. Continuing to have clean water and a healthy coast requires a bit of planning, as my colleague Peter Wellenberger pointed out in his post from last Thursday. An open, transparent planning process that uses the best scientific and local knowledge, fully involves all users and the public and protects the ecological capital that we all need to live, love, thrive and survive is the best way to go whether it is on the local, state, regional or national level.

This is why CLF supports the National Ocean Policy. We want your help to advance this much needed initiative.

Today is the last day of the comment period on the National Ocean Policy draft Implementation Plan. For more background on the plan, read my previous blog post – “Sexy? Alluring? Seductive? Hello there, National Ocean Policy” – here.

If you care about our ocean’s health, take a moment and share your comment through CLF’s action alert. Habitat for ocean wildlife, healthy and clean beaches, and thriving coastal communities are all worth a bit of planning.

Some of us lament a world where fake reality TV plots, uber-famous starlets way below my age demographic and head-exploding talk show hosts rule the airwaves, as it can be a bit difficult to get the media spotlight focused past the eye candy and on “the real issues.” You know – the substantive, grown up policy stuff like genuine efforts to bring scientists, industry, citizen groups and government together to solve ocean acidification, species loss, declining fisheries, coastal erosion, and red tides.

Well, say no more, ladies and gentlemen, because the National Ocean Council has brought us the sleekest, the sexiest, the most seductive and alluring draft ocean policy implementation plan of this – or any other – presidential administration.

Am I joking? Maybe a little. But, let me know if you really want to sit down for a 45 minute Powerpoint presentation and discussion that analyzes, for example, the structure of a regional planning body in a comprehensive regional ocean planning process. Because it turns out that real issue is actually a very important component of starting to develop agreement between large companies, day boat fishermen, coastal developers and beach-loving families on how to keep oceans clean, healthy and open for business. Not really TMZ-type material.

The National Ocean Policy is really laid out in a 96 page document called the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and on page 32 it details the nine priority objectives that will implement the National Policy. Today the National Ocean Council released a draft implementation plan for those nine priority objectives. This is a big step forward for implementing the National Ocean Policy and will eventually lead to some serious action on issues such as the need to develop ecosystem-based management approaches to cleaning up the polluted runoff that increasing fouls Cape Cod beaches each summer.

The Final Recommendations took a hard working group of 25 agency leaders (see page B-I) and their staff over a year to hold hundreds of meetings, review thousands of comments and interview dozens of business, economic, national defense, scientific and community experts in a process to develop our Nation’s first ever attempt to get all of its various departments and agencies pointed in the same direction and working together to improve ocean health and management. Creating the National Ocean Council and developing the draft implementation plan has taken another year. That’s because improving ocean health and keeping oceans healthy is hard work. Not having healthy oceans and coasts is costly to our economy, causes job loss and destroys livelihoods and communities. So, spend a few moments to check out the draft implementation plan. Help support the National Ocean Policy. Ask your friends, co-workers and elected officials to support the National Ocean Policy.

Power down the big screen and dive into a real issue.

A truly gorgeous summer day sailing around Block Island at hull speed is one of my fondest ocean memories. So is battling with a monster striper around midnight on the rocks of Cuttyhunk Island. (Landed and released.) I’ve also been lucky to enjoy any number of days on Buzzard’s Bay either cranking off the miles in a kayak, watching my small daughter catch her first porgie or diving off the fish dock deep into the cool, clean, green water.

I can’t think for a minute what deep shock and dread I’d feel if we had a truly disastrous oil spill such as happened with BP’s Deepwater Horizon. The 2003 spill from a barge collision in Buzzard’s Bay released at least 98,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil and those impacts were astonishing. Imagine the damage from a months long oil geyser such as happened with the Montara blowout that started on August 21 2009 and flowed for 72 days. Or, maybe you haven’t heard about the spill off the coast of Nigeria this week that is likely to extend over 900 square kilometers? Imagine that one hovering along Cape Cod National Seashore and washing up week after week. This spill was caused when oil was simply being pumped from the supposedly safer platform of a large storage tanker to a transfer vessel.

As happened with BP’s disaster, oil field catastrophes often cost human lives. You may not have been able to pick up one of the scarce stories in the US media about the sinking of a drilling rig off of Russia’s Sakahlin Island barely a week ago that has killed at least 50 workers. The rough waves, strong winds and icy waters are similar to the challenges of oil drilling in America’s Arctic sea — and should raise the same concerns. (How many workers are we going to be putting immediately at risk in the Arctic with a potential oil spill when the closest US Coast Guard station is 1000 miles away?) Even the source of last month’s oil spill hundreds of miles off of the coast of Brazil took eight days to locate and they don’t have to deal with icebergs. The list of oil spill disasters is growing so quickly that disasters are now seemingly routine. Yet, the ability to “clean up” hasn’t generally improved since the 1960s. The only real way to prevent a spill is to not drill in the first place.

So, I am giving thanks this weekend for a healthy, oil-free ocean and for my CLF colleagues and our allies who work hard to keep it that way. Like winter itself, the political storms will come and go and it is heartening to know there are dedicated, smart people willing to take on the challenge. The best way to keep our beaches and waters healthy, vibrant and clean is to keep supporting the people and organizations who work for a better future. Thank you all and Happy Holidays.

As Tricia Jedele recently reported, the US Senate is debating the funding for ocean management programs this week. The National Ocean Policy is certainly one Obama Administration initiative that deserves adequate funding and particularly, as we in New England know better than most, the program for comprehensive ocean planning is one that we can all benefit from. Ocean plans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are going to be instrumental in helping to protect ocean habitat and maintain healthy and safe coasts while the uses of the ocean increase. A New England comprehensive ocean planning process that engages all New England states and relevant federal agencies, will make sure that current uses like fishing are respected and will help to responsibly develop clean, renewable wind energy projects that also have the benefit of reducing carbon pollution and create new jobs. Who can argue with all of that?

Only in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body can one person make a political statement out of opposing a regional process that seeks to bring the fishing, energy, shipping and other industries, scientists, community leaders, recreational boaters and divers, wildlife advocates and state and federal agency managers together to help decide the best way to use and protect our Greatest Natural Asset. Ill-formed political gambits will usually receive a well-deserved response — and this one has. Conservation groups and ocean users across the country have responded to tell the Senate to stop the attacks on ocean planning and get on with the program. We’re not done with this bill yet, and surely more attacks will come in the future, but it is clear that the National Ocean Policy has its political base as well.

The Congress creates our federal laws. The Administrative branch creates regulations. The National Ocean Policy has yet to change either. Of course, you wouldn’t have learned this if you had sat through the House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee oversight hearing on the National Ocean Policy this morning. The rhetoric from Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) and the Republican members – who tried really hard to follow the current GOP playbook by depicting any effort by the Obama Administration as a “job-killing regulation” – claimed that the National Ocean Policy is “…ocean zoning (which) could place huge sections of the ocean off limits to activities not ‘zoned’ as government-approved.” The argument was less than convincing.

Massachusetts’ Representative Ed Markey (D-Malden) knows what many of us have learned from the value of the Massachusetts Ocean Plan: “Just like other plans, comprehensive ocean planning would allow everyone with an interest in our coasts and oceans to participate in a transparent, decision-making process to determine how to best utilize an increasingly busy, productive and important national resource.  This would increase predictability and certainty for existing and new users of these areas and improve ocean health. Opposing ocean planning is like opposing air traffic control. You can do it but it will cause a mess or lead to dire consequences.”

Well said, Ed. John Bullard, former mayor of New Bedford and someone with real experience in ocean planning, also did an excellent job making the case for rational thought and comprehensive ocean planning.

Still, the overall lesson from today’s hearing is that smart ocean planning has yet to inflame Congressional passions. We’re still hoping that the seductive merits of interagency coordination, collaboration and cooperation between ocean users, a productive and inclusive approach to public involvement and an increased ability to make science-based policy decisions will catch the eye of elected officials in Congress, the states and in communities across the nation. We are forced to admit, however, that the solid work of working together is bland stuff compared to the sex appeal of outlandish claims that the federal government is going to take away your fishing pole.

The Mass Ocean Plan is already showing the promise of good planning and cooperation. Rhode Island’s Ocean SAMP will be integral to creating a new industry of clean renewable energy. The National Ocean Policy can do the same for communities across the country. We need the Congress to stay calm and move it forward.

In 2009, President Obama started a process that established our Nation’s first National Ocean Policy in order to protect, maintain, and restore our ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes natural resources for present and future generations. Implementation of the National Ocean Policy will help our nation move toward better ocean management and protection and restoration of our ocean, coasts, islands and Great Lakes. Just when the NOP is getting up and running some Members of Congress are attempting to stop the National Ocean Policy with a backdoor attack through the FY12 Interior Appropriations Bill. The Interior Appropriations bill has already been deemed the “Worst. Bill. Ever.” for its attacks on bedrock conservation laws and the destruction it would wreak on environmental programs that keep our air breathable and our water drinkable. Now a well-oiled Texas Tea Partyer wants to take out the National Ocean Policy.

Reducing or eliminating federal funds for the development and implementation of the National Ocean Policy would be a “penny wise and pound foolish” approach to managing and sustaining our nation’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes and should be opposed. The National Ocean Policy is being implemented now with existing resources. Halting implementation of the National Ocean Policy would throw away two years worth of work, investment and commitment by state governments, commercial and industrial ocean users, universities and scientists, 25 federal agencies and departments and tens of thousands of citizens across the country.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island now have complete ocean management plans for their states’ waters. These states recognize that building a sustainable clean energy economy will bring more jobs and economic benefits that in turn will attract new businesses and help create a thriving New England. The key to building a new industry based on clean, renewable offshore wind energy turbines is a comprehensive management plan that involves current ocean users, maintains existing jobs, and is based on solid scientific data and the best information — so MA and RI created an open process to establish ocean management plans. Both of these plans are supported overwhelmingly both citizens and businesses in each state.

This is why we need a National Ocean Policy. Let’s just say Congressional leadership has been a little slow on what President George H.W. Bush called ‘The Vision Thing.” Planning for better, coordinated and more efficient management eludes Congress’ planning horizon. A backdoor attempt to stop the NOP deserves to be opposed. We are fortunate to have a number of Representatives in New England who get it, but they need friends. Please call your Member of Congress through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 or find your Rep’s webpage and send an e-mail at http://www.house.gov/representatives/#state The votes might be this evening or early tomorrow – -don’t delay!

Urge your Representative to SUPPORT THE NATIONAL OCEAN POLICY AND OPPOSE ANY ATTEMPTS TO HALT ITS IMPLEMENTATION.

Thanks to all of the CLF members and allies who called and e-mailed their US Senators about the oil drilling vote today. The nasty McConnell bill needed 60 votes to pass and was defeated by a final tally of 42 ayes to 57 nays. Most of New England’s delegation voted the right way but Sen. Scott Brown and Sen. Kelly Ayotte voted in favor of the drilling bill today and last night in favor of retaining taxpayer subsidies for the five biggest oil companies. Clearly some education is needed. Maine’s senators both voted correctly yesterday on oil subsidies but today Sen. Snowe kept her record clean on oil drilling with a no vote while Sen. Susan Collins unfortunately decided to support oil drilling.

Besides the attempts to increase oil drilling, the McConnell bill included a section that would have greatly limited the ability of citizens to access the courts and get a fair hearing in front of a judge. It would have denied the award of legal fees to organizations bringing successful lawsuits against oil companies. With tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies aiding oil companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on lobbying, do oil companies really need to skew citizen access to the courts and put their greasy paws on the scales of justice? Are there limits to their greed and attempts to manipulate the law?

Legislated requirements to drill off the coast of Virginia or mandate certain oil sales in Alaska creates a slippery slope to drilling in New England. We don’t need oil rigs on Georges Bank or massive petro-chemical infrastructure in our coastal communities. That’s why this vote was important for New England. Thanks for taking action today and thanks for your continued support for CLF.