Oppose Offshore Oil & Gas! Public Meeting in NJ

Show your “Ocean Emotion” this Valentine’s Day by attending COA’s Public Hearing to Oppose Offshore Oil, followed by BOEM’s Public Meeting, at the Hilton Garden Inn, outside Trenton in Hamilton, NJ from 3-7pm!

BOEM is not holding official Public Hearings but instead will be hosting Public Meetings across the country. Unlike Public Hearings, these ‘listening sessions” will not allow for spoken public testimony and will merely provide lap tops where comments can be submitted online. That is why Clean Ocean Action, along with many other NJ groups including NY/NJ Baykeeper, NJ Sierra Club, Surfrider: Jersey Shore Chapter, American Littoral Society, Surfrider South Jersey, and Clean Water Action are hosting a moderated Public Hearing at the same time and location of BOEM’s NJ Public Meeting.

Stop by the Citizen Public Hearing first to voice your opinion and get the facts before stopping by BOEM’s Public Meeting to display your opposition with signage and submit your comments online if you have not already done so. (See below for info on submitting comments online.)

There will be an Advocacy Room, coordinated by COA, for a press conference and citizen hearing and will be transcribing testimonies for the public record.

Background: On January 4th, 2018 the Trump administration declared war on the shore when Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke announced the next phase of President Trump’s new 5-year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The plan includes opening the entire Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Florida for drilling including all of the Jersey Shore and NY’s South Shore and would allow rigs to come within 3 miles of beaches.

Department of Interior Press Release:
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-zinke-announces-plan-unleashing-americas-offshore-oil-and-gas-potential

Live outside NJ? See below link for the full list of BOEM’s Public Meetings being held across the county throughout the country:
https://www.boem.gov/National-Program-Participate

Submit Your Comments before March 9th: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=BOEM-2017-0074-0001

Submit your comments on the Draft Proposed PROGRAM (DPP) for the 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf and Gas Leasing Program as well as the Bureau of Energy Management’s (BOEM) decision to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). For questions and additional information on BOEM’s DPP, contact Ms. Kelly Hammerle, Chief, National Oil and Gas Leasing Program Development and Coordination Branch at (703) 787-1613 and for questions regarding the EIS scope, contact Dr. Jill Lewandowski, Chief, Division of Environmental Assessment, at (703) 787-1703.