Could a Blue New Deal benefit North Carolina’s coast?

Oceans make up a majority of our world, but aren’t often a part of the larger political conversation. In a crowded field of Democratic presidential potentials, Elizabeth Warren became the first to add a Blue New Deal to her policy position earlier this week.

It’s something North Carolina environmental groups are eager to see.

Warren said she’d like to end off-shore drilling in favor of renewable energy like wind and wave energy. She also detailed plans for regenerative ocean farming, electrifying ports and restoring marine ecosystems.

Ocean policy has been an important part of the work of the Wilmington-based Plastic Ocean Project. Executive Director Bonnie Monteleone has been working on a strategy with a group of students from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“The students, for right now, are sitting in on conference calls learning from the staffer what is like to work for a legislator in D.C.,” Monteleone said. They’ve also been compiling ideas for solutions to ocean-related problems with the goal of bipartisan support.

In fact, Warren said the inspiration for her plan came when she attended a CNN town hall in September on the climate crisis.

“That night, Bren Smith, an ocean farmer from Connecticut, asked me if I would support a Blue New Deal to restore our oceans, in addition to our efforts to fight climate change on land,” Warren said. The focus isn’t only environmental, but economic, she added.

“Oceans already support millions of jobs, underpin our food system and contributes $304 billion to our national GDP.”

The Blue New Deal announcement also comes after Environment North Carolina released a report about offshore drilling last week. It found that plans to expand drilling off the coast of North Carolina could have significant negative impacts to coastal habitats and pollution onshore.

“We have reviewed Warren's Blue New Deal, and it is quite comprehensive,” said Jean-Luc Duvall, campaign director for Environment North Carolina. “There are a lot of important policy ideas that get to the root of some of our oceans’ biggest threats. We support these types of policy discussions that focus on tackling threats to our oceans, like offshore drilling, seismic testing, and plastic pollution.”

Still, there are some things that could be added to a Blue New Deal, Monteleone said.

“I would add the way of subsidizing renewable energy and research and development for creating jobs is to mandate a percentage of the $60 billion of subsidies given to the oil and gas industry to be distributed to address the back end of plastic production,” she said. “These efforts will help create the circular economy necessary to mitigate plastic pollution and promote the necessity of streamlining the use of chemicals to make plastics safer and easier to recycle.”