Giving Compass' Take:

• This video from the Surfrider Foundations explains the potential impacts of the Trump Administration's repeal of the existing National Ocean Policy to be replaced by a policy favoring business.

• How can funders help to balance the environmental and economic needs of communities? 

• Learn about funding environmental causes. 

On June 19, 2018, the Trump administration repealed the National Ocean Policy that was created based on recommendations from the Bush Administration's Commission on Ocean Policy and signed into effect by President Obama in 2010, with widespread support across multiple sectors and interests. The policy sought to address the many shortcomings of our nation’s traditional piecemeal approach to ocean management by shifting to ecosystem-based management.

In place of the National Ocean Policy, the Trump Administration issued a new executive order that prioritizes offshore energy development, extractive use of the ocean, and national security while eliminating much of the National Ocean Policy's environmental restoration and protection provisions. This stark policy shift toward elevating unsustainable development and big corporate profits over environmental protection, the public interest and the economy is nothing new under the Trump administration, but what exactly does this mean for the ocean and regional efforts well underway per the now extinguished National Ocean Policy? That's the very question the former regional planning bodies established under the policy in the Northeast(ME to CT) and Mid-Atlantic (NY to VA) are now in the process of addressing.

Read the full article about national ocean policy at Surfrider Foundation.