Even for Republicans, “drill, baby, drill” has limits.
Even though GOP lawmakers fumed at former President Joe Biden moving to close more than 600 million acres from offshore drilling in the waning years of his administration, some of those limits may survive.
President Donald Trump and and his allies in Congress are moving to open more federal lands and waters to oil and gas development — something that was central to the Republicans’ 2024 campaigns — but that doesn’t mean all GOP lawmakers want development off their coasts.
“Not off of Florida’s coast,” said Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, a conservative who Trump endorsed to become governor. “I will tell my colleagues, you can do that wherever you want, but not off of Florida’s coast.”
Biden’s limits cover federal waters off the East and West coasts, and around Florida. Unlike most existing restrictions, they are meant to be permanent.
Then-Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said after the announcement, “This is Joe Biden’s final insult to American families.”
But Republican Rep. Carlos Giménez, who represents the entire southern tip of the Sunshine State, said dryly when asked about offshore drilling: “Not in Florida.”
On his first day in office, just after taking the oath of office, Trump signed an executive order attacking a number of Biden directions — including on offshore drilling.
Last month the White House, in its rapid response X account, said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was “reopening leasing on 625 million acres of federal waters.”
But environmental groups are suing the administration, arguing that only Congress can undo the former president’s eleventh-hour directives under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Indeed, an Alaska federal judge ruled against a Trump move during his first term to undo Obama-era restrictions, but the legal question is considered unsettled.
That’s why Republicans are considering going after Biden’s actions in their party-line budget reconciliation bill. The reconciliation process allows lawmakers to pass legislation with a fiscal nexus by simple majority.
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), who is taking a leading role in crafting the energy portion of reconciliation, said in January there would be exceptions to the party’s drilling push.
“I’m thinking it’s going to be not necessarily a total rollback of everything, but looking at where it makes more sense not to take it off the table,” Westerman said.
More recently Westerman said, “I think overall, as tight as the margins are, developing in the Eastern Gulf is going to be pretty much off the table.”
The American Petroleum Institute says the eastern Gulf — off Florida’s West Coast — could produce as much as 1 million barrels per day if tapped. But offshore drilling is a political third rail in the state.
Trump himself enacted a ban during his first presidency to bar drilling off the coast of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina until 2032.
In addition, Florida passed a constitutional amendment in 2018 against any drilling in state waters. Voters approved the ballot measure 69-31.
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who was Trump Interior secretary during the first term, said, “If the entire coast objects, you shouldn’t be doing it.”
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who represents coastal South Carolina, has long been outspoken against drilling off her state’s shores.
“I’m committed to keeping oil rigs off our coast permanently to ensure South Carolina will never experience the crippling devastation others have and that we do all we can to protect our environment and wildlife,” Mace’s website says.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is facing a tough reelection campaign, said he would be open to overturning drilling bans off his home state.
“If there are truly large reserves of natural gas there, we have a national security and an economic imperative, and we also use that fuel to transition to more renewables,” Tillis said. “So that would be one where I’d say first ‘study, baby, study,’ and then if we find it, then ‘drill, baby, drill.'”
Reporter Timothy Cama contributed.
This story also appears in Energywire.
