PROVIDENCE – A fisherman, a ferry captain, an associate professor at Brown University and about 250 others gathered at the R.I. Convention Center on Thursday in an effort to help shape the nation’s ocean policy.
A total of 70 members of the public signed up to offer President Barack Obama’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force their opinions on the best ways to protect the oceans while balancing the needs of fishermen, shipping lanes, passenger ferries, renewable energy projects and recreational boaters. The six task-force members from Washington said earlier in the day that they came to listen.
“This is a really critical part of the work we do,” said Laura Davis, an associate deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Interior while gathered with other officials at India Point Park in Providence Thursday afternoon.
Later that day a panel told the officials – representing the Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality – that there is a hodgepodge of stakeholders in ocean policy.
John Torgan, Save The Bay’s Baykeeper, said ocean environmental efforts are woefully under funded by the federal government. He said that the government received nearly $3 billion in requests for the $160 million provided in the economic stimulus package for estuary projects. And sometimes, he said, the federal government appears to lack coordination in drafting environmental ocean policies.
“To date, we have utterly failed to cover these policies on a national and regional basis,” Torgan said.
As an example, he cited the decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to grant preliminarily approval for an LNG terminal in Mount Hope Bay, despite criticism of the terminal from local environmental groups.
Don Anderson, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., cautioned officials to avoid breaking the ocean into arbitrary blocks divided by manmade political boundaries. Birds and marine life, he said, do not respect political divides.
Other panelists told the task force to remember the interests of Native Americans and aquaculture. And the chairman of the American Wind Energy Association said a new policy must incorporate room for offshore renewable energy projects that can help fulfill President Obama’s goal of weaning the country off imported oil.
Then it was the public’s turn, with 70 people signed up to speak.
A captain from the Steamship Authority that serves Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket warned that wind farms and other energy projects could impede navigation. An associate professor from Brown University stressed the importance of basing policy on science.
A swimmer undertaking a swim down the East Coast said he spent a lot of time face down in dirty water. He said that after swimming through Boston Harbor, it was clear government needed to work together to clean up the nation’s coastal waters.
The task force is scheduled to deliver a final report to the president by Dec. 9. Its interim report recommends creating a new National Ocean Council to consolidate policy making at the highest levels of government. The task force’s hearing Thursday followed meetings in Alaska and California and was the only one planned for the East Coast.
Additional information is available at WhiteHouse.gov/oceans.
