Fugate chosen as state lead for National Ocean Policy’s Regional Planning Council

November 29, 2012 – WAKEFIELD – The executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), Grover Fugate, has been tapped to serve as the state lead for the National Ocean Policy’s Northeast Regional Planning Council. Fugate will coordinate the efforts of all six states serving on the council.

Under President Obama’s National Ocean Policy, the National Ocean Council (NOC), and Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning framework, the United States will be subdivided into nine regional planning areas. Each will have its own regional planning body with federal, state and tribal representatives tasked with developing regional goals, objectives and, eventually, regional coastal and marine spatial plans. These regional planning bodies will also provide a formal means of consultation with their respective Regional Fishery Management Councils on related issues.

In addition to the new post as executive secretariat, Fugate is also a governor’s designee to the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC), along with RI Department of Environment Management Director Janet Coit.

About the Executive Order

President Obama signed the Executive Order establishing a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes on July 19, 2010. That Order adopts the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and directs federal agencies to take steps to implement them. The Order strengthens ocean governance and coordination, establishes guiding principles for ocean management, and adopts a flexible framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflicts, and sustainable use of our ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes. The recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force also created a National Ocean Council to strengthen ocean governance and coordination, and to coordinate across the federal government to implement the national policy. The regional bodies bring federal, state and tribal partners together to plan for the future, and to address the unique needs of those specific regions.