On May 3, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy signed into law a bill intended to protect the public’s access to state beaches. The legislation codifies the state’s public trust doctrine, which ensures that tidal waters and adjacent shorelines are available to the public for navigation, commerce, and recreation, including bathing, swimming, and fishing.
Last week, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), a division of the Department of Interior (DOI), announced final changes to offshore drilling safety rules enacted following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The agency stated that it needed to amend the portions of the rule that caused “unnecessary burdens” on stakeholders. Many fear the changes could pave the way for another disaster like Deepwater Horizon.
On April 25, a new development in President Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda arose when the Department of the Interior confirmed that the current administration would not yet move forward with its plans to open virtually all federal waters to offshore drilling. This decision came in the wake of an Alaska District Court ruling issued in late March that denied President Trump’s attempt to overturn former President Obama’s Arctic and Atlantic drilling bans.
