To the editor,

The General Council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters issued the following statement in opposition to President Donald Trump’s expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration:

We are alarmed by the Trump Administration’s decision to open federal waters to new offshore oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. Lifting the ban on new offshore drilling makes no sense as our nation reels from the present impacts of climate change with record-freezing temperatures, unprecedented wildfires and crippling hurricanes.

Governors of coastal states also fear the potential negative impact on tourism, fisheries and recreation threatened by the specter of oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and devastated the Gulf Coast. This move is all the more alarming as the Trump Administration rolls back oil rig safety regulations put in place after the Deepwater disaster.

As women of faith concerned about the degradation of God’s creation and the future of humanity, we urge elected leaders to oppose this reckless unraveling of environmental protections and take legislative steps to put the nation on the path of a clean, renewables-based economy.

Sisters Patricia Siemen, OP, Prioress; Mary Margaret Pachucki, OP, General Councilor and Vicaress; Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilor and Administrator; and Elise García and Patricia Harvat, General Councilors, Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council