Washington — The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil drilling operations off the coasts of California and Florida for the first time in decades, part of a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand US oil production.
The oil industry is seeking access to new offshore areas, including Southern California and off the coast of Florida, as a way to boost energy security and jobs in the United States. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes off the coast of Florida and part of the coast of Alabama, since 1995, due to concerns about oil spills. California has some offshore oil rigs, but there haven’t been any new leasing in federal waters since the mid-1980s.
Since taking office for a second time in January, Trump has systematically reversed former President Joe Biden’s focus on slowing climate change to continue what the Republican calls America’s “energy dominance” in the global market. Trump, who recently called for climate change “The greatest fraud ever committed in the world.” Create a National Energy Dominance Council He ordered it to move quickly to increase US energy production, which has already reached record levels, especially fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
At the same time, the Trump administration banned renewable energy sources e.g Offshore wind It eliminated billions of dollars in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.
Even before its release, the offshore drilling plan was met with strong opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is eyeing a 2028 presidential run and has emerged as a prominent Trump critic. Newsom declared the idea “dead on arrival” in a social media post. The proposal is also likely to spark bipartisan opposition in Florida. Tourism and access to clean beaches are an essential part of the economy in both states.
The management plan proposes six offshore leases off the coast of California.
It also calls for new drilling off the coast of Florida in areas at least 100 miles offshore that state. The area targeted for leasing is adjacent to an area in the central Gulf of Mexico that already contains thousands of wells and hundreds of drilling rigs.
The five-year plan would also mandate more than 20 lease sales off the coast of Alaska, including a newly designated area known as High Arctic, more than 200 miles offshore in the Arctic Ocean.
All offshore areas “that have the potential to generate jobs, new revenues, and additional production to enhance U.S. energy dominance should be considered for inclusion,” the American Petroleum Institute and other groups said in a report. Joint letter to the Trump administration in June.
The groups cited California’s history as an oil-producing state. “Undiscovered resources could easily be produced given the array of existing infrastructure in the region, especially in Southern California,” the letter said.
Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida and a Trump ally, helped convince Trump officials of this A similar offshore plan was dropped in 2018 When he was governor. Last week, Scott and fellow Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody co-sponsored a bill to preserve the moratorium on offshore drilling in the state that Trump signed in 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 beaches clean and protect our natural treasures for generations to come.”
A spokesman for Newsom said Trump officials had not formally shared the plan, but said that “expensive and riskier offshore drilling will put our communities at risk and undermine the economic stability of our coastal economies.”
California has been a leader in restricting offshore oil drilling since the infamous 1969 Santa Barbara spill, which helped ignite the modern environmental movement. While no new federal leases have been offered since the mid-1980s, drilling from existing platforms continues.
Newsom expressed support for greater external controls afterward 2021 leak off Huntington Beach and supported congressional efforts to ban new offshore drilling operations on the West Coast.
A Texas-based company, with support from the Trump administration, is seeking to resume production in waters off Santa Barbara damaged by the 2015 oil spill. The administration has praised the plan Houston-based Sable Offshore Company. Like the kind of project Trump wants to do Increased energy production in the United States The federal government removes regulatory barriers.
Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term that contradicts the decision of former President Joe Biden Banning future oil exploration On the eastern and western coasts. A federal court later overturned Biden’s order to withdraw 625 million acre-feet of federal waters from oil development.
Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, warned that opening vast coastlines to new offshore drilling “would devastate coastal economies, jeopardize our national security, destroy coastal ecosystems, and put the health and safety of millions of Americans at risk.”
Oil spills “not only cause irreversible environmental damage, but also impair the value of coastal homes, harm tourism economies and impair coastal infrastructure,” the lawmakers said in a letter signed by dozens of Democrats, and said a catastrophic oil spill could cost taxpayers billions in lost revenue and cleanup and ecosystem restoration costs.
Joseph Gordon, campaign director for the environmental group Oceana, called the Trump administration’s latest plan an “oil spill nightmare.”
He said coastal communities “depend on healthy oceans for economic security and a cherished way of life. We need to protect our coasts from more offshore drilling, not sell them to the oil and gas industry. We need to protect our coasts from more offshore drilling, not sell them to the oil and gas industry.” There is too much at stake to risk more horrific oil spills that will haunt our coasts for generations to come.