Emails obtained by Saving Seafood through public records requests confirm rumors that environmental activists hoped to convince the White House to announce Atlantic Marine National Monuments at next weekโs โOur Oceansโ conference in Chile.
In this Greenwire story, Conservation Law Foundation Interim President Peter Shelly tells reporter Emily Yehle that the organizers were โtrying to keep that quietโ to minimize the opportunity for opponents โto organize against it.โ
WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) โ October 1, 2015 โ The story excerpted below was written by E&E reporter Emily Yehle, and appeared on September 30, 2015 in Greenwire:
One month ago, environmental groups were strategizing over their latest bid: Get the Obama administration to create its first marine monument off New England.
They had talks with fishing groups, lawmakers and think tanks. At the end of August, they exchanged emails over their progress โ and in one, the president of the Conservation Law Foundation warned everyone to keep quiet about the possibility of a breakthrough at the upcoming Our Ocean Conference in Chile.
โI hope no one is talking about Chile to the outside world,โ CLF Interim President Peter Shelley wrote. โItโs one of the few advantages we may have to know that it could happen sooner rather than later.โ
The email showed up in response to a public records request that Saving Seafood filed with the office of Maine Gov. Paul LePageโs. The advocacy group โ which represents fishermen opposed to the monument โ sent the emails to Greenwire yesterday, asserting that they confirm โrumorsโ of an impending monument announcement from the White House.
Such an announcement would certainly make waves. The proposed monument is small and sees little activity today, but it is near prime fishing grounds. House Republicans have also added the proposal to their arsenal of criticism over the White Houseโs use of the Antiquities Act (E&E Daily, Sept. 30).
But Shelley, in an interview today, said the email was just hopeful speculation. With the conference coming up, environmental groups had hoped to convince the Obama administration that the New England marine monument was shovel-ready and ideal for a conference announcement.
โThe time was pretty short to pull it off. We thought there might be an opportunity we could get them to think about these areas for an announcement in conjunction with the Our Ocean Conference,โ Shelley said. โWe were trying to keep that quiet because we didnโt want to give the opposition more of an advantage. The more time they had, the more opportunity they would have to lobby, to fight it, to organize against it.โ
Chile is set to host the second Our Ocean Conference in Valparaรญso next week. The State Department hosted the first one last year โ and used it as an opportunity to announce that Obama would drastically expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (Greenwire, June 17).
Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, said rumors that the White House would make an announcement at the conference have been making the rounds for a few weeks.
โGiven that last summer the Pacific monument expansion announcement took place at the State Department oceans summit, that seemed in keeping with previous actions,โ Vanasse said. โWe donโt put a lot of stock in Washington rumors; however, whenever our various [Freedom of Information Act] filings yielded this document, it seemed to be in sync with the rumors around town.โ
The creation of monuments is usually shrouded in secrecy. Presidents can unilaterally create them under the Antiquities Act, a century-old law that requires no public process and no congressional approval.