Governor Cooper Urges Trump Administration to Protect the North Carolina Coast

This week, Governor Roy Cooper wrote to urge President Donald Trump and his administration to include North Carolina in the recently announced moratorium on oil drilling for the next ten years. Last week, the President extended the moratorium in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but omitted North Carolina’s Atlantic coast.

“I am deeply concerned and disappointed that you did not include North Carolina in the moratorium,” wrote Governor Cooper. “Offshore drilling threatens North Carolina’s coastal economy and environment and offers our state minimal economic benefit. Accepted science tells us that there is little, if any, oil worth drilling for off North Carolina’s coast, and the risks of offshore drilling far outweigh the benefits.”

Governor Cooper has consistently called on the Trump administration to protect North Carolina’s coast from the dangers of offshore oil exploration and drilling, which would threaten coastal communities by jeopardizing tourism, commercial and recreational fishing and the natural resources that fuel the coastal economy, generating over $3 billion annually and supporting over 30,000 jobs.

Forty-five North Carolina communities have adopted formal resolutions opposing the expansion of drilling.

Read Governor Cooper’s Letter to President Trump.