President Donald Trump’s administration has announced the first new oil drilling in decades off the coasts of California and Florida, pushing ahead with projects that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems as the president seeks to expand U.S. oil production.
The White House announced Thursday.
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The oil industry has sought access to new ocean areas, including southern California and off the coast of Florida, as a way to promote U.S. energy security and jobs.
What does the plan include?
The administration’s plan proposes six marine lease sales in coastal California by 2030.
It also calls for new drilling to take place off Florida’s coast in an area at least 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the state’s coast. The area covered by the lease borders an area of the central Gulf of Mexico that already has thousands of wells and hundreds of drilling platforms.
The five-year plan would also mandate more than 20 lease sales off the coast of Alaska, including a newly designated area known as the High Arctic, more than 320 km (200 miles) offshore in the Arctic Ocean.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in announcing the sale that it would take years for oil from these parcels to reach the market.
“Advancing the development of a solid, forward-thinking leasing plan will ensure that America’s marine industry remains strong, our workers are kept employed, and our nation maintains its energy advantage for decades to come,” Burgum said in a statement.
In response, the American Petroleum Institute said the announced plan was a “historic step” toward unlocking vast ocean resources. Industry groups point to California’s history as an oil-producing state and argue that the state already has the infrastructure in place to support more production.
political backlash
Leaders in both California and Florida oppose the deal.
Last week, Florida Republican Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott co-sponsored a bill that would maintain a moratorium on offshore drilling in the state that President Trump signed during his first term.
“As Floridians, we know how important our beautiful beaches and coastal waters are to our state’s economy, environment and way of life,” Scott said in a statement. “I will always work to keep Florida’s coastline pristine and protect our natural treasures for generations to come.”
A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom said Trump administration officials had not formally shared the plan, but said “expensive and risky offshore drilling will endanger communities and undermine the economic stability of coastal economies.”
California has been a leader in restricting offshore oil drilling since the infamous 1969 Santa Barbara disaster that sparked the modern environmental movement. Although no new federal leases have been provided since the mid-1980s, drilling from existing platforms continues.
Newsom voiced support for stronger ocean management in the wake of the 2021 spill off Huntington Beach and supported Congress’ efforts to ban new offshore drilling on the West Coast.
A Texas-based company, with support from the Trump administration, is seeking to restart production in waters off the coast of Santa Barbara that were damaged by the 2015 oil spill. The administration has hailed the plan by Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp. as the kind of project President Trump hopes will increase U.S. energy production as the federal government removes regulatory barriers.
The announcement was made while Governor Newsom attended the COP30 climate change conference in Brazil.
“He (President Trump) intentionally timed it with the opening of COP,” Newsom said.
Even before it was announced, the offshore drilling plan faced strong opposition from Newsom, a Democrat who is aiming to run for president in 2028 and has emerged as a leading critic of Trump.
Newsom declared in a social media post that the idea was “dead on arrival.” The proposal is also likely to draw bipartisan opposition in Florida. Tourism and access to clean beaches are important parts of both states’ economies.
Democratic lawmakers, including California Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, warned that opening vast stretches of coastline to new offshore drilling would harm coastal economies, jeopardize national security, destroy coastal ecosystems and endanger the health and safety of millions of people.
“With this draft plan, Donald Trump and his administration are destroying one of the world’s most valuable and most protected coastlines and turning it over to the fossil fuel industry,” Padilla and Huffman said in a joint statement.
The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, including parts off Florida and Alabama, since 1995, citing oil spill concerns. Although California has several offshore oil rigs, there have been no new leases in federal waters since the mid-1980s.
Since taking office for a second time in January, President Trump has systematically reversed former President Joe Biden’s emphasis on slowing climate change and pursued what Republicans call American “energy dominance” in global markets.
President Trump recently called climate change “the biggest fraud the world has ever seen” and created a National Energy Control Council to act quickly to boost already record U.S. energy production, especially the production of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has blocked renewable energy sources such as offshore wind and canceled billions of dollars in subsidies that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.
