Statement of Dominican Sisters in Committed Collaboration on the Trump Administration’s Expansion of Offshore Drilling We join our voices with many Dominican Sisters in speaking for the protection of our coastal waters. Recent decisions by the Trump Administration seriously challenge the health of our coastal waters, the viability of industries dependent on coastal waters, and the safety of workers on oil rigs.
Specifically, we join our voices with the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council who state:
We are alarmed by the Trump Administration’s decision to open federal waters to new offshore oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico. Lifting the ban on new offshore drilling makes no sense as our nation reels from the present impacts of climate change with record-freezing temperatures, unprecedented wildfires, and crippling hurricanes. Governors of coastal states also fear the potential negative impact on tourism, fisheries, and recreation threatened by the specter of oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010 that killed 11 people and devastated the Gulf Coast. This move is all the more alarming as the Trump Administration rolls back oil rig safety regulations put in place after the Deepwater disaster.
As women of faith concerned about the degradation of God’s creation and the future of humanity, we urge elected leaders to oppose this reckless unraveling of environmental protections and take legislative steps to put the nation on the path of a clean, renewables-based economy.
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The Dominican Sisters in Committed Collaboration, a movement of 1200 vowed women religious and associates from the Dominican Congregations of Amityville, Blauvelt, Caldwell, Hope, Maryknoll, and Sparkill, hold social justice and care of creation as central to the embodiment of Gospel living.