US Pacific Northwest lawmakers oppose local oil and gas drilling, citing seafood industry impact

Lawmakers from Washington and Oregon, including U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, and Jeff Merkley, have come out in opposition to a federal plan that would allow oil and gas drilling off the coast of their states.

Last month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a plan to expand offshore drilling in nearly all U.S. coastal waters in the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific oceans.

Citing the importance of the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest and its multibillion-dollar fishing industry, the senators have appealed to Zinke to remove both Oregon and Washington from the plan, the Capital Press and the Statesman Journal reported.

In a 1 February sent to the Department of the Interior, Cantwell called for an exemption similar to the one Florida was granted because its coasts were “too important to the state’s tourism market, according to Zinke.

“We don’t want the economy that depends so much on our coastal issue of fishing and natural resources to be destroyed by what could be a catastrophic oil event,” Cantwell said at a press conference at the Greater Vancouver (Washington) Chamber of Commerce on 1 February.

President of the Washington Dungeness Crab Fisherman’s Association Larry Thevik also stated his opposition to the Trump administration’s proposed drilling expansion at the meeting in Vancouver. He said the fact that the state’s meager offshore reserves do not merit the risk of drilling. 

“At best, reserves off Oregon and Washington combined may provide the equivalent of 20 days of oil consumption,” he said. “Please Mr. President, coastal Washington should be put immediately on the no-drill list because we have jobs. We have some of the cleanest environment in the world. We don’t want to put those at risk. Not now, not ever.”