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Nelson, others voice 'strong opposition' to Trump's offshore drilling plan

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) today led a group of 37 Senate Democrats in voicing their “strong opposition” to the Trump administration’s plan to open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling.
“This draft is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. “We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk.”
Nelson, a long-time opponent of allowing oil rigs too close to Florida’s coasts, filed legislation in April 2017 that would block the Trump administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022.
He’s also filed legislation to extend the current moratorium in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for an additional five years, to 2027.
Following is text of the senators’ letter to Zinke, a PDF is available here.

January 9, 2018

The Honorable Ryan Zinke
Secretary
United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Dear Secretary Zinke:
We write in strong opposition to your agency’s misuse of taxpayer funds and agency resources to issue a draft 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the middle of the current 2017-2022 Five-Year Plan. This draft proposal is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input, and we object to sacrificing public trust, community safety, and economic security for the interests of the oil industry. We urge you to abandon this effort and maintain the protections outlined in the current 2017-2022 plan.
During your confirmation hearings, you pledged to incorporate local input into the management of our nation’s public lands. Our constituents, scientific bodies, businesses, and local elected officials have already decidedly rejected efforts to expand offshore drilling that could compromise ecosystems, tourism and recreation, public safety, and marine industries. The governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and the Attorney General of Rhode Island, all are formally opposed to new leasing off their respective shores. Additionally, more than 150 municipalities on the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico have passed resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. The New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Department of Defense, Air Force, and NASA have all weighed in expressing serious concerns or opposition to offshore exploration and drilling. More than 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have also expressed opposition to drilling in their communities.
The current 2017-2022 plan already allows leasing for more than 45 billion barrels of oil, and guarantees protections for vital resources in the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic. As the nation’s coasts are already bearing the consequences of climate change through rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and increased storm surges and flooding, we should not open all previously closed outer continental shelf areas to fossil fuel extraction and further endanger our climate, coastlines, communities, and economies. Especially in the harsh and fragile Arctic, where your agency has predicted a 75 percent chance of a major oil spill, proposing 19 new leases is the height of irresponsibility.
We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk. Offering 47 leases by expanding drilling into the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico waters would lock us into decades of carbon pollution, and endanger future generations and livelihood simply for short-term gain of major oil companies.
We strongly object to this draft proposal, and urge you to maintain protection for the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico and for our communities.

Sincerely,

Nelson, others voice ‘strong opposition’ to Trump’s offshore drilling plan

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) today led a group of 37 Senate Democrats in voicing their “strong opposition” to the Trump administration’s plan to open up nearly all federal waters to offshore oil drilling.

“This draft is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. “We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk.”

Nelson, a long-time opponent of allowing oil rigs too close to Florida’s coasts, filed legislation in April 2017 that would block the Trump administration from opening up any additional areas to offshore oil drilling until at least 2022.

He’s also filed legislation to extend the current moratorium in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for an additional five years, to 2027.

Following is text of the senators’ letter to Zinke, a PDF is available here.

January 9, 2018

The Honorable Ryan Zinke
Secretary
United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240

Dear Secretary Zinke:

We write in strong opposition to your agency’s misuse of taxpayer funds and agency resources to issue a draft 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the middle of the current 2017-2022 Five-Year Plan. This draft proposal is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input, and we object to sacrificing public trust, community safety, and economic security for the interests of the oil industry. We urge you to abandon this effort and maintain the protections outlined in the current 2017-2022 plan.

During your confirmation hearings, you pledged to incorporate local input into the management of our nation’s public lands. Our constituents, scientific bodies, businesses, and local elected officials have already decidedly rejected efforts to expand offshore drilling that could compromise ecosystems, tourism and recreation, public safety, and marine industries. The governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and the Attorney General of Rhode Island, all are formally opposed to new leasing off their respective shores. Additionally, more than 150 municipalities on the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico have passed resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. The New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Department of Defense, Air Force, and NASA have all weighed in expressing serious concerns or opposition to offshore exploration and drilling. More than 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have also expressed opposition to drilling in their communities.

The current 2017-2022 plan already allows leasing for more than 45 billion barrels of oil, and guarantees protections for vital resources in the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic. As the nation’s coasts are already bearing the consequences of climate change through rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and increased storm surges and flooding, we should not open all previously closed outer continental shelf areas to fossil fuel extraction and further endanger our climate, coastlines, communities, and economies. Especially in the harsh and fragile Arctic, where your agency has predicted a 75 percent chance of a major oil spill, proposing 19 new leases is the height of irresponsibility.

We are deeply troubled by your decision to open more than 90% of the outer continental shelf to fossil fuel development and needlessly put our coastal residents, businesses, oceans, and climate at grave risk. Offering 47 leases by expanding drilling into the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico waters would lock us into decades of carbon pollution, and endanger future generations and livelihood simply for short-term gain of major oil companies.

We strongly object to this draft proposal, and urge you to maintain protection for the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico and for our communities.

Sincerely,

Nelson says Trump’s pick for NASA chief ‘too divisive’ for the job

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“NASA needs leaders who will unite us, not divide us,”
the Florida Democrat says


U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee which oversees the nation’s space program, says President Trump’s pick to lead NASA is too “divisive and extreme” to head the nonpartisan agency.
“The NASA administrator should be a consummate space professional,” Nelson said during his opening remarks at today’s Commerce Committee hearing to consider Rep. Jim Bridenstine’s (R-OK) nomination to be the next administrator of NASA. “More importantly, the administrator must be a leader who has the ability to unite scientists, engineers, commercial space interests, policymakers, the Congress and the public on a shared vision for future space exploration.”
Nelson, who flew on the space shuttle and is widely viewed as a congressional expert on space matters, said Bridenstine’s past partisan behavior makes him unfit to lead the agency.
“NASA is not political,” Nelson said. “The leader of NASA should not be political. When [NASA] has been partisan in the past, we’ve had disasters.”
Nelson pointed to several highly-partisan comments Bridenstine has made recently criticizing both Democratic and Republican members of Congress for their efforts to work across the political aisle – including a television ad the Oklahoma Republican made attacking Nelson’s Florida colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio, for his efforts to seek bipartisan consensus on immigration.
Nelson called Bridenstine’s record and behavior in Congress “as divisive and extreme as any in Washington.”
“Congressman,” Nelson said, “on behalf of every member who has devoted their career to reaching across the aisle to build consensus and to find working solutions for the American people, I want you to know that his senator is quite skeptical and I take offense to that kind of quote – that ‘we need fighters, not people coming together.’ … That line of thinking is why Washington is broken.”
“NASA represents the best of what we can do as a people,” Nelson continued. “NASA is one of the last refuges from partisan politics. And when it has gotten partisan in the past, we have gotten in trouble. NASA needs a leader who will unite us, not divide us. Respectfully, Congressman Bridenstine, I think you’ve got a long way to go to prove to be that leader.”

U.S. Forecast: Economic Health Hinges on Trump Administration’s Proposed Policies

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ORLANDO — If the Trump Administration’s proposed economic policies gain traction, the U.S. can expect faster economic growth and higher inflation, says University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith, but that’s a big “if” given the administration’s tumultuous first eight months.

“Tweeting and talking about policy is one thing,” said the director for the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the UCF College of Business, “being able to continue the regulatory roll back and move tax reform and infrastructure spending into legislative action is the key to accelerating economic growth and extending the life span of economic recovery.”

In his third quarterly national economic forecast of 2017, Snaith said to expect the Federal Reserve to call for another 25- basis-point hike this December and that future hikes will come at a faster pace during the next three years, with the federal funds rate hitting 3.25 percent by the end of the first quarter of 2020.

Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, which slowed to 1.5 percent in 2016, is forecasted to hit 2.3 percent in 2017 and 3.4 percent in 2018 before slipping to 3.1 percent in 2019 and 3 percent in 2020.

The odds of a recession in the final quarter of the year continue to decrease, according to the most recent release of the Survey of Professional Forecasters by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.  The 35 forecasters surveyed put a 10.46 percent chance that a decline in real GDP will occur in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Average monthly payroll employment growth has decelerated the past three years, and uncertainty and regulatory burden have been hindering payroll job growth, which slowed to 1.8 percent in 2016. The forecast shows payroll job growth slowing to 1.6 percent in 2017 before stabilizing at 1.5 percent for 2018-2020.

The unemployment rate is expected to decline to 4 percent in early 2020, and job growth will be enough to keep up with labor force growth through the end of the forecast horizon. Underemployment, which has been a persistent problem in this recovery and stands at 8.6 percent as of August, also will continue to decline through 2020.

“Continued gains in employment, more rapidly rising wages and improving household balance sheets should continue to provide a solid foundation for continued consumer spending growth,” Snaith said. “Tax cuts and spending programs proposed by the Trump administration should also boost consumer spending growth.”

The forecast states the foreign sector will continue to be a drag on U.S. growth, as a stronger dollar and rising U.S. interest rates boost imports and depress exports. As a result, Snaith said, net exports will continue to fall through 2020.

The housing market, which continues to recover, is expected to slowly improve through 2020, even with rising interest rates. Housing starts are forecasted to rise from 1.24 million in 2017 to 1.63 million in 2020.

For the full forecast, visit:  https://issuu.com/ucfbusiness/docs/ucf-us-forecast-sept2017http://issuu.com/ucfbusiness/docs/ucf-us-forecast-september2016  

Snaith is a national expert in economics, forecasting, market sizing and economic analysis who authors quarterly reports about the state of the economy. Bloomberg News has named Snaith as one of the country’s most accurate forecasters for his predictions about the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate, the Federal Funds rate.

The Institute for Economic Competitiveness strives to provide complete, accurate and timely national, state and regional forecasts and economic analyses. Through these analyses, the institute provides valuable resources to the public and private sectors for informed decision-making.

CONTACT: Erika Hodges, College of Business, 407-823-3041 or [email protected]

About UCF College of Business 
Established in 1968, the UCF College of Business offers degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and executive levels. All programs, as well as the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting are accredited by AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The college provides high-quality academic programs designed to give students a competitive advantage in the world of business now and in the future. Learn more at business.ucf.edu

Zenaida Kotala

Associate Director

University of Central Florida, News & Information

407-823-6120

UCF Today: http://today.ucf.edu

After-hours media line: 407-823-5300