RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The top lawyers for a dozen coastal states want the U.S. Interior Department to cancel the Trump administration's plan to expand offshore drilling, warning it threatens their maritime economies and natural resources.
The attorneys general, all Democrats, wrote Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday about his agency's proposed five-year oil and gas leasing plan that opens new ocean waters.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin said that allowing drilling for oil and gas would be detrimental to the local economy and quality of life.
"When the North Cape ran aground in 1996, spilling 828,000 gallons of home heating oil into the Bay, our local fishing and lobstering economy was brought to its knees as 250 square miles of Block Island Sound was closed to fishing," Kilmartin said, in a statement. "One can only imagine the economic and environmental devastation on Rhode Island if we ever experienced an oil spill the likes of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico that sent 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. We don’t need this to compound the significant challenge of global warming."
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein says he assembled the coalition. He says his state's coastal tourism industry alone generates $3 billion and 30,000 jobs.
The letter also was also signed by attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Virginia.
Stein also told federal regulators this week that proposed changes to drilling safety requirements will increase exploration risks.