There may be a lot more of these on the horizon. Photo: Unsplash
On November 20, the Trump administration released a draft of a five-year plan to open the coast of California to oil and gas leasing. Not just California, either, but also parts of the Gulf of Mexico and a whole whack of Alaska.
“The Department of the Interior today announced a Secretary’s Order titled ‘Unleashing American Offshore Energy,’ directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to take the necessary steps, in accordance with federal law, to terminate the restrictive Biden 2024–2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program and replace it with a new, expansive 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program by October 2026,” reads a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior. “As part of this directive, the Department is releasing the Secretary’s Draft Proposed Program for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. These actions reflect the Trump administration’s continued commitment to restoring American Energy Dominance by replacing the smallest offshore leasing plan ever published by an administration with one that fully addresses the nation’s growing energy needs.”
It’s a move that has environmentalists aghast. According to a press release from Oceana, the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation, there haven’t been any new leases issued in federal waters off the coast of California since the 1980s. President Trump’s plan would see six lease sales in California alone between 2027 and 2030.
“The leasing proposal would also allow offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, outside of a 100-mile ‘buffer,’ Oceana representatives wrote. “The Arctic Ocean would also see lease sales in the draft plan. Almost a decade ago, oil companies abandoned leases they owned in the Arctic Ocean following a series of mishaps, fines, government investigations, and, most famously, the grounding of the drill rig Kulluk.”
The plan, which is called “The National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program” or simply “the Five-Year Plan” for those who don’t like to talk too much, is basically an outline that determines where the government can sell offshore drilling leases. It would allow drilling in over a billion acres of U.S. federal waters — including some that are protected.
The Five-Year Plan, determines where the federal government will sell leases for offshore drilling from 2026-2031. The proposed draft plan would allow drilling across in more than one billion acres of U.S. federal waters, including protected areas.
“This draft plan is an oil spill nightmare!” said Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon. “The last thing America needs now is a massive expansion of offshore drilling that could shut down our shores with catastrophic oil spills. Our coastal communities, and their multi-billion-dollar economies, rely on healthy oceans to survive.”
Now that the draft of the bill has been introduced, we enter a 60-day comment period. For the next two months, the public is invited to voice any issues with the proposal. After that, the Trump administration will issue another proposed program — assumedly with the public’s concerns in mind — and then another 90-day comment period begins. After that, the bill will be sent to Congress for at least 60 days for consideration prior to finalizing the Five-Year Plan.
Back in July of 2024, Oceana ran a survey that found some 64 percent of American voters “support their elected officials protecting U.S. coastlines from new offshore drilling.” Registered voters in coastal states showed similar support, with 66 percent saying they opposed new offshore drilling rigs.
“We cannot allow for offshore oil and gas expansion on the West Coast. Coastal property owners, businesses, their communities and visitors were severely harmed by California’s 2015 and 2021 offshore oil spills,” said Grant Bixby, founding member of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast. “Our own clients who operate vacation rentals received cancellations for months, and those visitors were lost to hundreds of other local businesses up and down the coast. Our harbors and beaches were completely shut down. Any offshore drilling is not worth the economic and environmental risk to our state which relies on a clean coast.”
Martha Collins, Executive Director for Healthy Gulf, is outraged at the plan the Trump administration is devising. “News that the Trump Administration’s Five-Year Plan dramatically expands drilling in the Gulf is a breach of the public’s right to clean and healthy waters,” said Collins. “The Gulf is already a sacrifice zone of air and water pollution and abandoned oil wells, and new drilling will be even more dangerous as the industry expands into deeper and riskier waters. Opening up everything from the arctic to the eastern gulf will not move our country forward to a clean energy future and energy independence this administration so craves.”
