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The Biden administration has established what it calls the first-ever action plan specifically targeting ocean health.
It’s part of a White House agenda setting the nation on course to conserve at least 30% of ocean waters under U.S. jurisdiction by 2030. And it fits with steps to date that leave some observers labeling Joe Biden the “climate-change president.”
The initiatives were pitched as part of Biden’s budget proposal out earlier this month and detailed Tuesday.
The Ocean Policy Committee, co-chaired by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy organized the ideas under what they’re calling the United States Ocean Climate Action Plan.
The plan, they believe, could be a “groundbreaking road map to harness the power of the ocean to advance immediate, transformational steps to protect ocean health and address the climate crisis,” according to the White House. That crisis refers to atmosphere-warming greenhouse gas emissions put off by man-made advancements using oil, gas
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and other fossil fuels.
Within the oceans framework, the government said it would promote environmental justice in ocean-side municipalities. The environmental justice movement acknowledges that some communities, often due to lack of planning and residential exposure to nearby industry and traffic, face greater health risks from pollution than other parts of town.
But even as climate change is targeted, Biden said his efforts are meant to ensure a robust and sustainable ocean economy, from tourism to commercial fishing.
Government data show the U.S. fishing economy alone, as of 2020, supported 1.7 million jobs, including nearly 600,000 recreational jobs, as well as $253 billion in sales and $117 billion in value-added impacts to other services and industries in fishing communities.
Biden announced other conservation steps Tuesday.
They included establishing national monuments at scenic and sacred natural areas in Nevada and Texas, plus creating a marine sanctuary in U.S. waters near the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawaii. The designations mean that no commercial development can take place on the lands. Tuesday’s conservation agenda also called for support of wildlife corridors. Biden also announced new spending to improve access to outdoor recreation, promote tribal conservation and reduce wildfire risk.
Related: Biden just made a move to protect 900-year-old trees and a pristine coral reef
In all, the proposals seek to modernize management of America’s public lands, harness the power of the ocean to help fight climate change, including through offshore wind
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as an alternative to fossil fuel power. Biden earlier this year set the first-ever permitting for wind in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We can reduce emissions by building offshore wind farms to better protect our coastal and fishing communities from Washington [state] storms, changing fisheries and other impacts on climate change,” Biden said Tuesday. “And I’m also committed to working with the tribal leaders, as well as [Washington] Senators Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Representative Mike Simpson to bring a healthy and abundant salmon run back to the Colorado River system.”
In the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii, Biden will direct the Commerce Department to consider initiating a new national marine sanctuary designation within 30 days to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands. If completed, the new sanctuary would help ensure the U.S. reaches Biden’s goal of protecting 30% of oceans within the U.S.’s reach.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. territory area marks some of the most pristine coral reef in the Pacific Ocean, including “165 known seamounts that are hot spots of species abundance and diversity” and an ecosystem whose health is vital to slowing the costly effects of climate change. Healthy oceans and their plant and animal life provide major absorption of the carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming.
The proposed protected area “is larger than Alaska and Colorado put together and three times the size of Texas,” Biden said Tuesday. “That’s no small amount of land and would make it the largest ocean area on the planet with the highest level of protection.”
Earlier this month, Biden moved to block future oil
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and gas
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leasing in the Arctic Ocean’s federal waters, part of a plan to protect 16 million acres of land and water in Alaska. But with that move came his controversial approval of ConocoPhillips’
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large-scale Willow drilling project on Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope.
The approval, although it comes with some conditions that protect other parts of the area and the Arctic Ocean, is arguably Biden’s most consequential climate choice to date.
It’s a blemish, say critics, on a record that so far has included major emissions-reduction pledges and a sweeping spending bill that rewards American households and businesses for switching to electric vehicles and replacing oil- and gas-powered operations with solar, wind and other greener options.
Related: Biden approves Willow oil-drilling permit in Alaska. It’s a ‘carbon bomb,’ one group says.
Republicans, for their part, are pushing an energy agenda that plays down the longer-term risks of rising global temperatures that result from greenhouse gas emissions and focus instead on providing the lower costs they assign to a wide offering of energy sources. That leaves traditional energy at the heart of their platform, but can include wind, solar, nuclear, hydrogen and other alternatives, with GOP priority given to market-based solutions in these areas, they say.
The bill advanced earlier this month will meet a roadblock in a Democratic-controlled Senate, but is seen setting the tone for energy policy for the 2024 election.
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