The Family Farm Alliance today applauded President Trump’s executive order to revoke the 2010 National Ocean Policy (NOP) Executive Order and chart a new and more rational approach to ocean policy.
“We strongly support the Trump Administration’s action to remove this burden on Western businesses and citizens by vacating the NOP Executive Order,” said Alliance Executive Director Dan Keppen.
The White House decision to scrap the NOP builds upon recent momentum in the House of Representatives, which voted earlier this month to prohibit any funds appropriated under the FY 2019 Energy & Water appropriations bill from being used to fund implementation of the NOP’s coastal and marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management components.
The Alliance has monitored this issue for some time and has formally raised concerns with how the policy would be implemented. The association – which represents family farmers and ranchers in the 17 Western states – was one of over 60 groups who signed on to a June 19, 2017 letter to President Trump requesting that the NOP be vacated.
“We strongly support your taking steps to remove this burden on American businesses and citizens by vacating the NOP Executive Order,” those groups wrote to the president.
Mr. Keppen testified last December before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee, which conducted a hearing on the state of the NOP and the program’s interaction with existing laws and regulations for ocean management. Mr. Keppen also testified on this matter before the House Committee on Natural Resources in 2017.
“Some may wonder – why is an organization that represents family farmers and ranchers in the mostly inland West concerned with a policy that would appear to apply more to the ocean and coastal communities?”, Mr. Keppen said. “It’s because this Obama Administration policy set forth yet another level of federal management and oversight.The decision by President Trump to vacate this policy minimizes its potential to impose negative impacts – intended or not – on the Western interests we represent.”
Contact: Dan Keppen (541-892-6244)
