4 Ways You Can Help Defeat Trump’s Disastrous New Drilling Plan

Chris Carnevale | January 8, 2018 | Energy Policy, Offshore Drilling
This map shows the areas proposed for offshore oil and gas development by President Trump. The dates indicate the years in which lease sales will be held for those areas.

You may have heard the news that last week President Trump unveiled an utterly insane national plan for offshore drilling that seeks to auction off 90% of our country’s offshore waters to oil companies. In the plan, the coastlines of every single coastal state except Hawaii would be jeopardized by offshore drilling, with potential drilling as close as 3 miles to shore in almost all states. Check out the map on the right to see where exactly the Trump Administration has proposed we drill for oil and gas. Many of these places have never hosted offshore drilling activities, have no desire to host such activities, and do not even have adequate oil or gas resources to possibly justify it. To learn more about this foolish drilling plan, and why it’s such a bad deal for the American people, check out our previous blog post here.

Now it’s time to get mad and do something about it. Here are 4 ways you can help defeat Trump’s disastrous new drilling plan:

1. Submit an official comment. Trump’s Interior Department begins taking comments today–Jan. 8–and will accept public comments until March 8. Submit your comment here on why you oppose the “drill everywhere plan.”

2. Write a note to your elected officials. While the Trump Administration seems dead set on turning over our oceans to oil companies, we need to make sure our elected officials at the State and Congressional level know we’re counting on them to protect our shores. With just one click, you can easily contact your state legislators, governor, and members of Congress all at once using this form. Please take one minute and make sure your elected officials hear from you.

3. Attend a public meeting. The Trump Administration will host public meetings all around the country to take public feedback on the drilling plan. Save the date to attend your closest meeting and tell the administration about your opposition. The Southeast meetings are listed in the graphic to the right, and many more around the country are listed here. Sadly none of the Southeast hearings are actually in coastal communities so we’ll need inland beach-lovers to speak up, as well as, a mobilized front to get coastal dwellers to these hearings!

4. Take Action at Hands Across the Sand on May 19. Hands Across the Sand is an international day of action when communities all over the world join hands together at their local beach to say no to offshore drilling and yes to clean energy. Save the date for May 19 and plan to attend your local event to stand for your shores.

Chris Carnevale
Chris is SACE’s Climate Advocacy Director. Chris joined the SACE staff in 2011 to help with building public understanding and engagement around clean energy solutions to the climate crisis. Chris…
My Profile