Originally at seaturtles.org
Project 2025 Would Be a Disaster for Our National Marine Sanctuaries & Ocean Ecosystems
By Todd Steiner
According to a new article, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025-would-be-a-disaster-for-national-marine-sanctuaries/, the extreme conservative blueprint from the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 would put oceans in peril by weakening protections and prioritizing industry desires over conservation.
New analysis from the Center for American Progress reports if Project 2025 were implemented, it would expose 1,370,350 square miles of ocean and freshwater habitat to new threats, including our National Marine Sanctuaries.
There are currently 16 National Marine Sanctuaries, stretching from the Florida Keys to Hawaii, which protect 600,000 square miles of habitat, and several new Sanctuaries are under consideration. All National Marine Sanctuaries ban all extraction of minerals and fossil fuels within their boundaries.
Project 2025 would threaten new and proposed sanctuaries by:
- Opening opportunities for mineral extraction in existing sanctuaries;
- Pausing creation of any new national marine sanctuaries; and
- Radically restructuring the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency that manages the National Marine Sanctuary program.
Project 2025 prioritizes extractive industry and giveaways, especially to the fossil fuel industry. A list of additional threats posed by Project 2025 to current US policies that protect environmental and human health can be found here:
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