Interior Department offices that oversee federal waters have developed shutdown plans that largely halt renewable work while prioritizing oil and gas projects.
The plans reinforce the Trump administration’s shift away from wind energy and low-carbon technologies in favor of fossil fuels.
At the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which manages federal offshore energy leasing, employees can continue to work on “priority conventional energy projects,” according to contingency plans. That includes planning an upcoming oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico — which President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of America — as well as work related to future oil and gas lease sales and a 2026 critical mineral lease sale.
“The performance of the above functions will be on an as-needed basis, only to perform work related to time-sensitive projects,” BOEM says in the plan, noting that the work would be funded with leftover money from its budget.
