BY DAVID FOSTER Trentonian Staff Writer -

Democrats and Republicans are hardly getting along lately.

But when it comes to the Jersey Shore, New Jersey’s elected officials from both parties are letting President Donald Trump know to keep oil drilling away from the beach.

“What President Trump announced yesterday is nothing less than dropping a ticking-time bomb off our coast,” Gov.-elect Phil Murphy said Friday at a press conference in Long Branch, referencing the havoc wreaked by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. “We’ve all heard the promises that nothing can go wrong but we don’t need to look any further than our Gulf Coast to see how secure those promises are. This has nothing to do with creating any sort of common sense, comprehensive or even comprehensible energy policy. We must stand firm against any plan for fossil fuel exploration, drilling or development off the Atlantic Coast — whether it be three miles, 30 miles or 300 miles away from New Jersey.”

The Trump administration announced a plan on Thursday to open offshore drilling in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf of Mexico from 2019-2024. The proposal would allow for drilling up and down the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Maine. 

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a longtime Mercer County Republican whose district stretches to Ocean and Monmouth counties, joined the Democrats’ outcry over Trump’s drilling proposal.

“I am unalterably opposed to this proposal,” Smith said in a statement. “Opening the Atlantic coast to oil and gas exploration poses serious risks to the local marine wildlife, the fish populations which our commercial fishermen rely upon for their livelihood, and seriously threatens our pristine state beaches that we enjoy and rely upon for economic activity in New Jersey. We can and must assert our energy independence in ways that do not compromise our coastal waters and beaches and put other industries at risk.”

 
New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith at a press conference at the Hamilton Township Council Chambers. TRENTONIAN FILE PHOTO

Smith, who also opposed Trump’s tax reform plan, touted that he defended the Jersey Shore in 2015 when the Obama administration proposed a similar idea that was defeated.

At the incoming governor’s event in Long Branch, Murphy was joined by Sen. Bob Menendez, Congressman Frank Pallone (D-6th) and environmental groups.

“A pristine and thriving Jersey Shore is our birthright, and we must do everything we can to protect it from a Trump offshore drilling plan that defies common sense, disregards the concerns of our shore communities and imperils the homes and livelihoods of everyone who depends on our coastline,” Menendez said, noting the Shore supports 500,000 jobs and generates $44 billion for the state’s economy annually. “What’s happening here is a dream scenario for big oil — but a nightmare for our shore communities. It’s a gift to corporate polluters at the expense of our coastal economies. We’ve been through this fight before — and we’ve won. It’s a fight worth having, and I’m going to do everything I can in Congress to put a stop to it.”

Murphy said he would carry the fight from the governor’s office and would work with the state’s attorney general to “take legal action against the president.” “This is just a huge giveaway to big oil and gas companies,” Murphy said. “It runs counter to our values and it endangers our most precious natural resource. What we need to do is to support our shore.”

Originally from Webster, N.Y., David has been a reporter in N.J. for the past three years (first in Phillipsburg and now in Trenton). He is a Temple alum who interned at the Philadelphia Daily News. Reach the author at dfoster@trentonian.com.

This story was published on Jan. 5, 2018 and can be found online at:
http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20180105/bipartisan-politicians-to-trump-keep-oil-drilling-out-of-jersey-shore