Dear Chairwoman Sutley and Director Holdren:

I am writing to you as the co-chairs of the National Ocean Council created under Executive Order 13547, which implemented the final recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and created a new National Ocean Policy. In addition to the National Ocean Council, the Executive Order created, among other things, an expanded federal bureaucracy to manage ocean activities and resources and new policies that could close off parts of the ocean to job-creating economic activities. On January II , 2012, the National Ocean Council issued a draft Implementation Plan that identifies more than 50 proposed actions across nine subject areas, including actions to develop regional coastal and marine spatial plans, otherwise known as ocean and coastal zoning, to regulate agricultural and commercial activities in areas far removed from the ocean, and to limit local stakeholder involvement in management decisions.

Read the entire letter HERE.