In response to the Executive Order Regarding the Ocean Policy to Advance the Economic, Security, and Environmental Interests of the United States, stakeholder groups from around the country including the following have issued statements in support of the action.
“We strongly support the Trump Administration’s action to remove this burden on Western businesses and citizens by vacating the NOP Executive Order,” said Alliance Executive Director Dan Keppen.
“Some may wonder – why is an organization that represents family farmers and ranchers in the mostly inland West concerned with a policy that would appear to apply more to the ocean and coastal communities?”, Mr. Keppen said. “It’s because this Obama Administration policy set forth yet another level of federal management and oversight. The decision by President Trump to vacate this policy minimizes its potential to impose negative impacts – intended or not – on the Western interests we represent.”
-Dan Keppen, Executive Director, Family Farm Alliance
“NACO is pleased to announce that today President Trump issued an Executive Order Regarding the Ocean Policy to Advance the Economic, Security, and Environmental Interests of the United States, which includes a revocation of the 2010 National Ocean Policy Executive Order issued by then President Obama.
President Capt. Bob Zales, II stated; “In the Gulf, as well as all areas of the country, in recent years recreational and commercial fishermen have been over-regulated and negatively impacted in every arena. The National Ocean Policy was an unforced error created by a stroke of the pen that added to those burdens by needlessly draining resources and energy away from what our industries should and need to be focused on, which is generating economic activity and providing recreational and commercial opportunities and enjoyment of our natural resources, all under the oversight of responsible regulation as authorized by Congress.”
-National Association of Charterboat Operators
“Today’s action is a welcome development that embraces principles we all agree on, such as encouraging data and information sharing, interagency and inter-jurisdictional collaboration, and partnerships within and among the public and private sectors. At the same time, it removes a significant cloud of uncertainty that has been hovering over a wide range of commercial and recreational interests that represent a broad cross-section of the American economy, threatening domestic jobs, economic activity, and recreational opportunities through new and unauthorized bureaucracies, mandates to federal agencies, and actions that could needlessly prohibit, limit, or delay access to public lands.”
“This announcement will help ensure a future in which the American people can continue to receive the diverse array of economic, recreational, and societal benefits that the oceans provide for generations to come.”
-Jack Belcher, Managing Director, National Ocean Policy Coalition
“Today’s Executive Order represents another positive step forward for recreational fishing and recreational fishing businesses. The National Ocean Policy failed to address the problems identified by our industry as those being most pressing, while creating additional levels of bureaucracy and uncertainty that threatened to reduce the overall productivity of our industry by forcing small business owners to divert limited resources away from their operations in order to deal with this unnecessary and ambiguous regulatory maze. The action being taken today will help restore additional stability to our industry and promote job growth in the fishing sectors. Thank you, President Trump.”
-Jim Donofrio, Executive Director, Recreational Fishing Alliance
“No longer will US commercial fishermen be ignored through a poorly designed national ocean policy that actually kept them, members of the nation’s oldest industry, from having true input at the table, even though the ocean is their place of work. We truly appreciate the President’s efforts.”
-Bonnie Brady, Executive Director, Long Island Commercial Fishing Association
“The Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries appreciates vacating the National Ocean Policy. While well intended, we do not believe the prior administration realized the confusion and uncertainty this policy actually created among stakeholders and even among the various state and federal agencies with ocean jurisdiction.”
-Kathy Fosmark, Co-Chair, Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries
“NOIA welcomes today’s Executive Order addressing policy for the nation’s oceans, particularly as it addresses the previous Administration’s National Ocean Policy and its Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) initiative, which caused consternation, uncertainty and concern for the offshore energy industry and other ocean stakeholders. The offshore oil and gas industry and many others have largely viewed the MSP initiative as an uber-bureaucratic ‘solution’ to a government self-imposed problem. In addition, not all stakeholders and activities were treated equally in the zoning process. The offshore energy industry has successfully operated side by side with other ocean users, without major conflict, guided by the planning inherent in the five year offshore national program and the leasing process mandated by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The Executive Order reverses the misguided course of the 2010 National Ocean Policy. This renewed broad vision will hopefully encourage productive partnerships, recognizing a wide variety of ocean uses, all leading to increased economic, environmental and energy security for America through job creation, economic activity, and energy development.”
-Randall Luthi, President, National Ocean Industries Association
“The Gulf Economic Survival Team applauds President Trump’s Executive Order which revokes the previous Administration’s burdensome and over-reaching policy by removing a major threat to the U.S. economy, American jobs and critical energy infrastructure development. GEST supports engaging stakeholders to ensure reasonable, transparent, multi-use, and effective ocean policies within the existing statutory framework that benefit all ocean users and remove barriers to effective coordination.
President Obama’s 2010 National Ocean Policy was ill-conceived, unnecessary, and an unauthorized top-down bureaucracy that failed any test of agency accountability and has been operating without any statutory or budgetary authority. The policy threatened to introduce new permitting hurdles that would impose further delays, uncertainty and burdensome conditions to the oil and gas industry, all to the detriment of jobs and economic growth. The policy was an attempt to implement “ocean zoning” in the Gulf of Mexico and other coastal regions that could have prohibited or delayed offshore oil and gas activity that is vital to the United States economy.”
“For the past 60 years, the Gulf has been our primary source for producing offshore energy, generating approximately 97 percent of all domestic offshore oil and natural gas. In 2016, offshore oil and natural gas production accounted for approximately 18.2 percent and 4.4 percent of U.S. production respectively. This production is a critical component to ensuring a dominant U.S. oil and natural gas industry in the future. Overly burdensome policies on the offshore industry hinders capital investments which in turn impacts our local offshore service companies and cripples local economies along the Gulf Coast.”
-Lori LeBlanc, Executive Director, Gulf Economic Survival Team
“The Obama administration’s ocean policy executive order overstepped considerably and threatened to weaken a U.S. fisheries management regime that is recognized internationally as a world class management system. U.S. fisheries management relies on science, conservative management, and perhaps most importantly, on an open and transparent decision making process. The Obama administration executive order would have undermined a regional process informed by knowledgeable local stakeholders, creating a new fisheries regulatory process involving myriad federal agencies in D.C. with no particular expertise in marine resource management that would have competed with and threatened to supersede the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act process. The Trump administration executive order rightly focuses on important priorities like fostering federal agency cooperation and information sharing, while restoring the proven success of regional federal fisheries management.”
- Jim Gilmore, Public Affairs Director, At-sea Processors Association
“ARA supports the Trump Administration’s efforts to implement a more streamlined federal process for coordination with the states and private industry as it relates to ocean policy. The previous administration’s top-down federal approach created new levels of bureaucracy and creating regulatory uncertainty which had the potential to inflict damage to many industries, including agriculture. We strongly support protecting our inland waterways, oceans and coastlines in a more a cooperative approach between federal, state, and local officials in partnership with private industry. Providing regulatory certainty and increased access to federal data and information will ensure a clean, healthy ocean while protecting impacted private industries that contribute billions to the U.S. economy and support millions of jobs.”
-Richard Gupton, Senior Vice President, Public Policy & Counsel, Agricultural Retailers Association
“We wholeheartedly support President Trump’s revocation of the National Ocean Policy created by Executive Order 13547, which created tremendous uncertainty for our business and the commercial fishing industry as a whole. We welcome the President’s acknowledgement of the domestic food source and export opportunities provided by the commercial fishing industry and look forward to working with the Administration in the future on fisheries and ocean issues.”
- Meghan Lapp, Fisheries Liaison, Seafreeze Ltd.
“We applaud yesterday’s Executive Order Regarding the Ocean Policy to Advance the Economic, Security and Environmental Interests of the United States.
The fishermen in our country are the most regulated in the world, by both state and federal agencies, and the former National Ocean Policy only added confusion, unclear directives, cumbersome rules and layers of bureaucracy.
The Executive Order will allow NCWU to continue to Protect the Freedom to Fish for all fishermen – commercial, charter/headboat and recreational.”
-Britton Shackelford, Board Member, North Carolina Watermen United
“We support President Trump’s revocation of this bad policy and look forward to continue working with the administration for fairness and equity in the utilization of our nation’s marine resources.”
-Bob Jones, Executive Director, Southeastern Fisheries Association
“Directed Sustainable Fisheries is very happy to see this huge bureaucratic effort called the 2010 National Ocean Policy rescinded. The new executive order by President Trump could be a better alternative for gathering needed data and increasing communications with members of the private sector.”
-Rusty Hudson, President, Directed Sustainable Fisheries
“Why does Western Energy Alliance, which represents onshore Rockies producers in a land-locked region, strongly support the action by President Trump to overturn the Obama-era ocean policy? Because not only was the 2010 executive order a vast federal regulatory overreach, but it provided an additional tool for bureaucrats to control development far inland by connecting it to far-away oceans. When there’s no limit to federal power, then everything can be controlled. As in the Waters of the U.S. rule that regulated dry land and went far beyond the authority granted to federal agencies by Congress, the 2010 executive order was a sweeping overreach that President Trump has justly overturned.”
-Kathleen Sgamma, President, Western Energy Alliance
“Originally created to help Federal Agencies address key ocean challenges by giving communities greater input in government decisions, the National Ocean Council fell short of these goals. Instead, it created another level of Federal bureaucracy that excluded the perspective of the men and women who work the water and imposed costly and legally dubious mandates on local communities.
Failing to “streamline Federal operations,” “save taxpayer dollars”, and “promote economic growth” the Council often promoted polices that were out of step with science-based sustainability efforts designed to improve maritime communities planning for the future.
Disbanding the National Ocean Council will allow real stakeholders to play a bigger role in determining the scope, scale and impact of marine planning in their communities. The President should be commended for taking this simple step to ensure a fairer and more transparent policy process when it comes to our oceans.”
-John Connelly, President, National Fisheries Institute
