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March 15, 2019

Interior Official Hails Trump for Distracting Media From Drilling Plans
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The Trump administration is preparing to open vast areas of the Atlantic
Ocean to oil and gas development-and a top Interior Department official
is praising President Trump's ability to distract the media for allowing
the project to proceed. Records obtained by The Guardian show Joe Balsh,
the assistant secretary for land and minerals management, told a recent
meeting of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors,
"One of the things that I have found absolutely thrilling in working for
this administration is the president has a knack for keeping the
attention of the media and the public focused somewhere else while we do
all the work that needs to be done on behalf of the American people."

The Trump administration's Atlantic ocean drilling plan would permit oil
and gas leases in federally controlled coastal waters up to 200 nautical
miles from the shore.


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