New York and New Jersey move to block offshore drilling

Governor Andrew Cuomo

MAY 7, 2018 — The Trump Administration’s plans to open up Atlantic waters for offshore drilling continue to face mounting resistance from coastal states.

Back in March, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today announced that New York had formally requested an exclusion from the new five-year National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. Last week, he made it plain that if asking politely wouldn’t do the trick, the state had other options by announcing a piece of state legislation called the “Save Our Waters” bill.

If enacted, the bill would:

Prohibit leases for oil and gas exploration or production in New York waters, including Long Island, New York City and the Hudson River.

Prohibits infrastructure on state land associated with offshore production in the North Atlantic.

Prohibits transportation within the navigable waters of the state of crude oil produced from the federal waters, designated as the “North Atlantic Planning Area.”

NEW JERSEY

Similar legislation was signed into law by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on April 20, the eighth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

New Jersey bill A-839 bans offshore oil and gas exploration and its production in New Jersey’s ocean waters. The bill also prohibits the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from issuing any permits and approvals for the development of any facility or infrastructure related to offshore drilling within or outside of New Jersey waters.

In addition, the bill requires DEP to review any proposed oil or natural gas development in the Atlantic region of the U.S. exclusive economic zone to determine if the proposal can reasonably be expected to affect New Jersey waters.