New Jersey Bans Offshore Drilling

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill Friday banning oil and gas drilling in state waters. The ban, supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the state, is a direct response to the Trump Administration's plan to open and lease most of the nation's offshore waters drilling and exploration (Florida is exempt from the policy).

Murphy said New Jersey is not willing to risk an oil spill or rig explosion and urged other coastal states to take similar action.

"We know that an oil spill off the Jersey shore would have impacts hundreds of miles away. Just as a spill off [the] coast of Maryland, Virginia or Florida would foul our beaches," he said at a bill signing ceremony in Point Pleasant Beach.

States only have jurisdiction over waters up to three miles of the coast. But the bill bans pipelines, or any equipment, used to transport oil drilled in federal waters though New Jersey. It also gives more power to the state’s environmental agency to review federal drilling proposals.

The governor of Maine is the only leader of an Atlantic coastal state who's come out in favor of the Trump Administration's plan.