The Interior Department announced plans Thursday that could significantly increase offshore oil and gas drilling, including in waters off the coasts of California, Florida and Alaska.
The move to massively expand coastal drilling opportunities drew condemnation from environmental groups — and it’s sure to stir fights in Congress over where and when new oil development should be allowed.
The proposal would allow drilling off parts of the West Coast that have long been off-limits, as well as new areas in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean. The announcement comes as Trump administration officials aim to expand U.S. fossil fuel production and target Democratic areas of the country. President Donald Trump also this year renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
“The Biden administration slammed the brakes on offshore oil and gas leasing and crippled the long-term pipeline of America’s offshore production,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday in a news release. “By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come.”
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is part of Interior, regularly develops leasing schedules in roughly five-year increments that vary by administration. Under former President Joe Biden, the prior leasing program — which was scheduled to run through 2029 — proposed the smallest offerings since the program began decades ago. The plan included only three oil and gas lease sales, all in the Gulf.
The Trump administration’s new proposal — which would run through 2031 — seeks to dramatically expand those offerings, though it could also face lawsuits. The plan could see further revisions before it is finalized.
The plan lays out a schedule for 34 lease sales spread across the Gulf, Pacific and Arctic. There has not been a federal lease sale in the Arctic since 2008, nor one in the Pacific since 1984.
Six lease sales — to be held between 2027 and 2029 — would be in areas along the southern, central and northern California coasts. Twenty-one of those sales would be near Alaska in locations such as the Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, Chukchi Sea and a 2030 sale in the High Arctic, a region north of Alaska that the U.S. has laid claim to.
Seven sales would be held in the Gulf, with two sales to be scheduled in a newly defined area in waters off the coast of Florida. The offerings do not include Florida’s Atlantic coast.
The proposed lease sales are in addition to a previously expanded list of offshore leasing offerings required under the Republican-passed megalaw. A 60-day public comment period on the new five-year leasing plans will open Monday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a prominent Trump foe and likely 2028 presidential contender, has already thrown cold water on the administration’s hopes for drilling off of California.
While in Brazil for a global climate summit, Newsom recently called federal plans to offer oil and gas leases off the coast of California “dead on arrival,” according to POLITICO.
Split reactions
Environmentalists quickly pushed back against Interior’s new leasing plans.
“The Trump administration is threatening to impose offshore oil drilling on states, cities, and communities that have fought against it for decades,” Brettny Hardy, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, said Thursday in a statement. “Trump’s plan would risk the health and well-being of millions of people who live along our coasts. It would also devastate countless ocean ecosystems that both humans and wildlife rely on.”
Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the proposal an “absolutely unhinged attack on our coasts” in a statement.
“I’m confident that Americans across the political spectrum will come together to fight Trump’s plan to smear toxic crude across our beaches and oceans,” she said.
The oil industry, by contrast, was thrilled.
“As other nations embrace offshore oil and gas development and secure billions in investment, the U.S. is now seizing the competitive opportunity for energy leadership by advancing a forward-looking Draft Proposed Program,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, in a Thursday statement. “Strategic energy leadership necessarily means opening the door to investment in new areas, including the Pacific, Atlantic, Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf.”
Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, called Interior’s move Thursday a “historic step.”
While some of the first offshore drilling in the U.S. occurred off the coast of California in the late 19th century, the state largely tamped down on the industry after a major oil spill in 1969, which sent more than 3.2 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean off Santa Barbara. In 2015, there was another spill in the area near Refugio State Beach.
While state governments control the first few miles of ocean beyond their shorelines, huge swaths of sea along the Atlantic and Pacific borders of the U.S. are under federal jurisdiction, which gives BOEM authority to approve leasing. But oil platforms in federal waters would still presumably need to connect to land via pipelines or barges, which could lead to further friction with state governments.
Most offshore drilling in the U.S. happens in the Gulf of Mexico. Other platforms are located off of California and Alaska.
Previous efforts during the first Trump administration to open up areas to offshore drilling failed. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to open up more than 90 percent of the outer continental shelf to leasing in 2018. But the effort drew swift blowback, including from some coastal Republicans, and never materialized.
A similar dynamic surfaced this fall.
After media reports that the administration was again considering opening up the Atlantic coast to drilling, Florida Republicans pushed back against the administration, and officials removed the Atlantic from consideration, according to POLITICO.
