Interior head to travel to Carolinas to discuss off shore drilling

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is traveling to the Carolinas this weekend to meet with both state’s governors and discuss the administration’s draft plans for offshore oil and gas drilling.

Zinke is scheduled to meet with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) on Friday and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Saturday, an Interior spokesperson confirmed to The Hill.

The meetings follow Interior’s announcement in early January that the Trump administration will seek to open up offshore leasing for much of the country. The announcement was almost immediately met with resistance from a majority of coastal states.

Representatives from Florida were the most outspoken. Five days following his announcement Zinke flew down to Florida to meet with Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Following the meeting Zinke tweeted that Interior would not be considering Florida’s coastlines in the decision, but left the door open to other states.

“I support the governor’s position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver,” Zinke said in a Jan. 9 statement. “As a result of discussion with Governor Scott’s and his leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms.”

A number of states made statements asking to also be exempted from the rule, including South Carolina’s Gov. McMaster, who told McClatchy in early January, “We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline in South Carolina.”

A spokesperson for McMaster confirmed that the governor’s meeting with Zinke Friday at his residence stemmed from the exemption request.

However, at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing earlier this month, an Interior representative walked back whether Zinke’s tweet carried the weight of law, saying that all states were still being considered for leasing.

“The secretary’s decision stands for itself, and we have no formal decision yet on what’s in or out of the five-year program,” said Walter Cruickshank, the acting director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“Until such time as all those analyses are complete and we have all those comments to put in the record and consider, we will not have any indication of where the secretary wants to go.”

The lack of clarity led Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) to put a hold on three of President Trump’s Interior Department nominees until he said he could get a promise that Florida would not be open to leasing.

Nelson “will keep the holds in place until Zinke rescinds the draft five-year drilling plan published in the Federal Register on Jan. 8 and replaces it with a new draft plan that preserves the current moratorium in the eastern Gulf of Mexico beyond 2022 and fully protects all of Florida’s coasts from the threat of both offshore drilling and seismic testing,” his spokesman told The Hill at the time.