Posted on 07/19/2010 10:25:27 PM PDT by artichokegrower
The Obama administration Monday unveiled new policy for managing the nation's oceans, seeking to strengthen protection of coastal waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the Monterey Bay.
The policy, which secures a longtime vision of local Congressman Sam Farr, calls for creation of a National Ocean Council to coordinate the many layers of state and federal regulation on such matters as offshore drilling, fishing and shipping. The policy creates no new law, but is expected to sharpen attention to existing regulations.
The announcement comes three months after the BP oil spill, which continues to blacken the Gulf, though a federal task force has been working on the policy since June of last year.
"At a time when science knows the oceans are dying and several politicians have known it, there's never been a crisis to drive policy, until now," said Farr, D-Carmel, who has tried unsuccessfully to win a similar oceans conservation plan through legislation. "This is giant step forward."
Farr called the president's policy, which comes via presidential order, "the clean water and air acts for the ocean."
At the heart of the new plan is a practice known as marine spatial planning. Just as local governments establish zoning to manage land use, ocean regulators will approach coastal waters from a broad perspective, figuring out what aquatic activities are appropriate and where.
Whether its oil drilling or generating energy from waves, new activity would have to comply with the spatial plans.
The planning will be done by nine regional bodies, building upon existing state and federal laws and overseen by the National Ocean Council, made up of scientists and top administration officials.
"With a growing number of recreational, scientific, energy and security activities, we need a national policy that sets the United States on a new path for the conservation and sustainable use of these critical natural resources," Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a prepared statement.
The policy won't likely have an immediate effect on offshore oil drilling. A presidential commission is now studying drilling practices in response to the BP spill, and the administration has tried to enact a moratorium on deep-water drilling until the commission's work is done. The courts, though, are contesting that ban.
Environmentalists in the Monterey Bay area Monday praised the president's new oceans policy.
"What we've done in the past is piecemeal," said David Wilmot, president of the Capitola-based advocacy Ocean Champions. "Instead of just proposing something, we (now) look at the entire area and decide what we want to do with it... I expect some people will be told no, you can't do that here."
Though most of the Central Coast is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and, as such, enjoys strict protections, Wilmot said decisions around the sanctuary will now be made with the area's conservation goals in mind.
Offshore drilling and other potentially invasive activities are likely to be more limited near the Monterey Bay region, he said.
Not everyone, however, is expected to be on board with the new policy. When the plan was being drafted, fishing groups and oil interests expressed concern about a top-down bureaucracy, a fear that's apt to continue.
Obama's plan calls for the new National Ocean Council to convene this summer.
Kurtis Alexander and the Santa Cruz Sentinel are smoking serious crack too if they think such..........=.=
…with even more layers of federal bureaucracy.
and I’m supposed to be happy about this?
Your happiness enters into Obama’s plan not a twit.
Oh geez——— yet another redundant federal bureau. Gotta’ keep them burger-flippers employed.
Just what we need - ANOTHER f’n goobermint agency to “coordinate” the abuse of the people.
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