So far, plea to move Feb. 15 hearing on offshore drilling plan to Long Island falls on deaf ears in Washington

With a scheduled public hearing on federal plan to open up the outer continental shelf to oil and gas exploration just one week — and hundreds of miles — away, the Secretary of the Interior has not responded to calls to move the hearing to Long Island.

The public hearing scheduled by the feds is set for Feb. 15 at the Albany Hilton.

“Hosting a public forum in a landlocked city three hours away from the shoreline of New York will make it more difficult for members of the public who have an interest in coastal waters in their backyards to attend,” Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine wrote in a letter to Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke this week.

Romaine, whose town has more coastline than any other on Long Island, reiterated his demand to hold the hearing on Long Island, which would bear the brunt of any impact of the offshore drilling plan unveiled Jan. 4 by the Trump administration.

Other local officials have joined in that demand, as has First Congressional District Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley). A State Assembly delegation has scheduled a hearing at the county legislative complex in Hauppauge on Feb. 14 to take comments from residents. 

The draft plan  calls for opening up more than 90 percent of the outer continental shelf — the underwater lands in U.S. territorial waters, excluding a 25-mile coastal buffer — for natural gas and oil exploration.

It was developed pursuant to an executive order signed in April by President Donald Trump, who advocates increased offshore drilling and has moved to roll back “too restrictive” safety regulations established by the federal government after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The explosion on the rig killed 11 people and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the sea — the worst oil oil spill in American history.

The plan is enthusiastically supported by the oil and gas industry. The National Ocean Industries Association said a study it conducted with the American Petroleum Institute concluded offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic could create nearly 280,000 new jobs, spur an additional $195 billion in new private investment, contribute up to $24 billion per year to the U.S. economy, generate $51 billion in new revenue for the government, and add 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to domestic energy production through 2035.

But the plan drew almost immediate bipartisan condemnation from officials at every level of government in coastal states around the country. Hundreds of municipalities have adopted resolutions opposing the proposal. After opposition from Florida’s governor, the federal agency announced it had removed the waters surrounding Florida from the proposal — which prompted governors of other states, including N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to demand the same treatment.

There has also been bipartisan blowback from members of Congress. Zeldin has spoken out against the proposal, signed on to a letter to Zinke asking for reconsideration of the plan, and called a press conference at the aquarium in Riverhead to display local bipartisan opposition.

At the Jan. 26 press conference, Zeldin implored Zinke — a fellow veteran and ex-congressman who Zeldin said was a personal friend — to remove New York’s waters from the drilling plan, citing environmental risks and economic impacts to the region in the event of an oil spill.

Zinke has not responded to Zeldin’s demand.

“Our office has been in constant communication with the Secretary’s office regarding this important issue. The Secretary is aware of Congressman Zeldin’s request,” a Zeldin spokesperson said in an email Tuesday night.

Zeldin has not come out in opposition to offshore oil and gas exploration across the board — or in support of pending legislation that would ban such activity altogether.

“The Congressman’s primary focus remains advocating against any oil exploration off the coast of Long Island by working directly with the Secretary of the Interior,” Zeldin spokesperson Katie Vincentz said in response to a question about the extent of the NY-1 representative’s opposition.

Zeldin said Congress can use its “power of the purse” to prevent implementation of the plan, if it comes to that.

“Federal agencies cannot spend a single dollar to explore for offshore energy or issue permits to private companies to undertake that process in our area unless Congress votes to appropriate that money. A vote to authorize drilling in our area would be unlikely to pass due to broad opposition to drilling in our area from lawmakers in both parties and at all levels of government,” Vincentz said.

Environmental advocates and tourism industry representatives also oppose offshore drilling off the coast of Long Island, citing unacceptable risk of irreversible damage the the marine environment and the potential for massive economic fallout from an oil spill due to the region’s dependence on tourism as an economic engine. 

Written comments on the plan will be accepted until March 9. Comments can be submitted online.