ACTIONS

Immediate Actions

The West Coast Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Health called for four immediate actions. Those actions, and their current status, are:

Offshore Oil
Send a joint message to the President and Congress reinforcing our opposition to oil and gas leasing, exploration and development off our coasts.

Status: The three Governors sent a joint letter to the President and Congress on September 29, 2006.

Nonpoint Source Pollution
Call upon the President and Congress to provide secure funding to address threat of nonpoint source pollution along our coasts.

Status: The Governors sent a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees urging restoration of FY 2008 funding for the coastal nonpoint pollution control program on June 6, 2007.

Regional Research
Development of a West Coast Sea Grant Regional Research Plan for the west coast in coordination with The National Sea Grant office, academia, and other research institutions.

Status: The development of this plan is currently underway and public workshops are being held in all three states to receive input.

Federal Support
Request the White House Council on Environmental Quality to facilitate the implementation of the U.S. Ocean Action Plan, to assist the three states in requesting and receiving technical assistance from federal agencies to address issues of regional significance.

Status: The Governors sent a letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality April 10, 2007. Council Chair James Connaughton sent reply letters on April 17, 2007.

See the Documents page of this website for copies of all letters.

Action Plan

In their Agreement, the Governors also directed staff to develop a more extensive set of specific regional recommendations to address the Agreement’s priorities. To obtain input on draft recommendations, the states engaged stakeholders and the public through a series of public meetings between April and August 2007. In March 2007, the states circulated a discussion paper with one page summaries of the Agreement's priority issues and possible actions that the Governors would consider including in the final Action Plan. A draft Action Plan was released in October 2007, and the public comment period re-opened through December 1. The states used the feedback received to finalize the Action Plan (6.8 Mb / 2.2 Mb), which the Governors released on July 29, 2008. Watch the video.

To carry out the Action Plan, the states created Action Coordination Teams (ACTs) charged with ensuring tri-state communication and collaboration while accomplishing specific actions. In May 2009, these teams finished drafting work plans detailing the tasks, timelines, and resources required to fulfill their charge.