Dozens of US Congressmen have signed a letter calling on President Donald Trump to think again about his recent directives to review areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for oil drilling.
The letter, made public on Monday, said that drilling off each seaboard would pose potential disaster for coastal communities dependent on tourism and fishing.
More than a hundred, mostly Democratic Party, lawmakers signed the appeal to the President asking him to reject proposals to open the Atlantic and Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) regions to drilling.
In April, President Trump issued a directive to the Department of the Interior (DOI) asking it to look again at the five-year offshore drilling plan approved by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2016. That plan featured no new lease sales for the Atlantic, Pacific or Arctic.
Last week DOI announced it was evaluating six energy companies’ applications for seismic survey permits in the Atlantic. Those six applicants had been denied under the Obama administration.
