Obama Administration officials also released the Final Recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force on July 19, 2010, which would establish a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes (National Policy) and create a National Ocean Council (NOC) to strengthen ocean governance and coordination. The Final Recommendations prioritize actions for the NOC to pursue, and call for a flexible framework for coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflict, and sustainable use of the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes. The NOC would coordinate across the Federal Government to implement the National Policy. The Final Recommendations also call for the establishment of a Governance Coordinating Committee to formally engage with state, tribal, and local authorities.
Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) said, "President Obama recognized that our uses of the ocean are expanding at a rate that challenges our ability to manage significant and often competing demands. With a growing number of recreational, scientific, energy, and security activities, we need a national policy that sets the United States on a new path for the conservation and sustainable use of these critical natural resources."
On June 12, 2009, President Obama sent a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and Federal agencies establishing an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and charged it with developing recommendations to enhance national stewardship of the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes and promote the long term conservation and use of these resources. The Task Force was led by CEQ and included 24 senior-level policy officials from across the Federal Government. At the President's direction, the Task Force released an Interim Report in September 2009 and an Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning in December 2009.
Each of the reports was made available online for public comment. The Task Force received and reviewed close to 5,000 written comments from Congress, stakeholders, and the public before finalizing its recommendations. The Task Force's Final Recommendations combine and update the proposals contained in the two earlier reports.
Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), issued a statement saying, "Our oceans are in urgent need of a coordinated approach for their conservation and management, and this new national policy is a step in the right direction. Our oceans face numerous threats, from overfishing and pollution to climate change and acidification. The policy announced today acknowledges that our country needs to initiate a comprehensive program to ensure healthy and productive oceans and coasts for generations to come. The Obama administration's proposal creates a governance structure for the management of the oceans and sets out a program for marine spatial planning -- which, like zoning on land, would designate certain areas for diverse uses such as drilling, fishing, shipping and protection. But the proposal lacks guarantees for conservation and biodiversity protection. . . The policy announced today is a good and necessary step toward coordinated planning and conservation, but we have yet to see if it will translate into good management."
Access an announcement from the CEQ with links to the Executive Order and all background documents (click here). Access a release from CBD (click here).
ANY BALLAST WATER CHANGE YET OR IS THIS SILL THE CASE?
ReplyDeleteThe largest elect legislative voice of the people voted bi- partisan 395-7 in 2008 for the change we needed for ballast water standards. This Military study is just to delay action, as the Coast Guard initially purpose a twenty plus year plan to follow an international organization made up of primarily foreign economic interest.(IMO) Industry is wining the battle on ballast water the same way they always have, with the help of this administration, by a myriad of different state laws and various branches of government in charge of different aspects of the same problem, making it impossible to enforce. This is evident by the tar balls in Lake Pontchartrain. Despite repeated warnings to this administration about ballast water being problematic with ocean development, neither the Coast Guard nor the EPA, bothered to enforce the Clean Water Act, even in this time of disaster in the gulf. One can only wonder how well the Department of Homeland Security is bothering to watch for the real possibility of these systems being used by terrorist. As Americans are without work and a study prepared for congress in Dec 2009 suggesting the cost of foreign imports would rise with federal ballast legislation, our president feels negotiating hidden carbon emission and currency manipulation with a communist country is the way to create jobs. This is evident by his public rift with rep Oberstar on how to create jobs. Rep Oberstar was instrumental in ballast legislation in 2008 that passed, bi-partisan 395-7 in the House, only to be killed by one Senator. Senator Boxer, who the president supports for re-election killed this change, over her ideas about state rights. NY's governor Patterson who has created laws for ballast water that will affect all Great Lakes States in the presidential election year (2012), was ask by President Obama to step aside during mid-term elections. It will be interesting to see how NY'S next governor will defend the work of Governor Patterson.
The president ocean initiative policy, plans to follow internatioal laws and treaties that have traditionally been adhered to, as areas of our oceans are divide for development. The Law of the Sea Treaty has provisions for ballast water, that do not address our nations specific currents and the geographical placement of our natural resources, to insure the safe use of ballast systems with ocean development. New ocean development minerals, oil, fishing, exploration all will release substances that will be moved by these system. New chemical technologies used in ballast systems could interact with yet unknown substances released through development. Will the presidents ocean initiatives plan exclude the shipping lanes used to bring foreign goods into our country from our economic development to help create jobs?