The Trump administration is proposing to auction offshore oil drilling leases across new portions of the U.S. coast as soon as 2026, according to internal Department of Interior draft documents viewed by CBS News.
New leases would include waters off New England, the Carolinas and California.
Offshore oil leases are common along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, as well as parts of Alaska, but there are currently no active oil leases on the Atlantic coast, and California has not had a new oil lease since 1984.
This comes as the Department of Interior formally announced plans this week to reopen 1.56 million aces in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision to limit oil drilling in the Arctic.
That decision drew a strong rebuke from Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who accused the administration of rewarding the fossil fuel industry for its support of the president. “This decision is not about energy dominance—it’s about donor dominance,” Markey said in a statement. “The Trump administration must immediately reverse its shortsighted decision. The Arctic Refuge is not for sale.”
The Department of Interior is assessing new oil leases as part of the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which issues oil leases in five-year increments. The Biden administration set the previous plan and had the fewest leases on record, with only three.
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Documents reviewed by CBS News included assessments of whether state governments favored offshore drilling, and indicated that the states opposed it. The documents also included potential dates for leasing each tract of seafloor.
If the plan is approved by the Interior secretary and moves forward, California could see lease sales as soon as 2027 and the Beaufort Sea in Alaska, which includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, could see lease sales as early as 2026. Under the terms of the lease, a company would then have five to 10 years, depending on the water depth in the area, to explore and develop oil and gas production.
The Trump administration opened a public comment period in April for a new five-year gas leasing policy. Lawmakers from both parties voiced concerns about offshore drilling, including members of Congress and state governors, and the process drew more than 34,000 comments.
Governors Josh Stein (D, North Carolina) and Henry McMaster (R, South Carolina), issued a joint statement opposing the idea, saying there has been broad bipartisan consensus against offshore drilling because of, “the risks that these activities pose to the economy and environment of our states.”
In a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in June, McMaster wrote, “Every coastal municipality in South Carolina has passed a resolution opposing oil and gas exploration activities offshore. I stand firmly with them. We simply cannot afford to accept the risk of the adverse environmental impact attendant to offshore drilling.”
CBS News reached out to McMaster for comment, but his office did not respond.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican who is running for governor of South Carolina, issued a similar letter to Burgum, writing, “In South Carolina, there is widespread bipartisan agreement in opposing offshore drilling off the coast of our state.”
The Trump administration tried to open new offshore oil leases during his first term, but backtracked when Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina lawmakers from both parties criticized the effort. The Trump administration instituted bans on offshore drilling in waters surrounding those states shortly before the 2020 election. The current iteration of the plan does not include offshore oil leases off Florida’s coast, but it is unclear whether those bans will continue off the Carolinas.
CBS News reached out to the White House and Department of Interior for more information about the plans. A White House spokesperson declined to comment on ongoing policy discussions.
The Biden administration issued a record low number of offshore oil leases, and withdrew 625 million acres along the Pacific, Atlantic and Alaska coasts from offshore oil development. The Trump administration rescinded those Biden withdrawals, and a federal court in Louisiana ruled this month that the Biden withdrawals were illegal.
Offshore oil leases have been unpopular for decades. Congress had a moratorium preventing drilling on both coasts and the eastern Gulf from 1981 to 2008, and President George H.W. Bush issued an executive order preventing offshore drilling which stood until 2008, when his son lifted the order.
The Obama administration had once considered opening the Atlantic coast to offshore oil leases but changed its stance following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf.
The Department of Interior is expected to publish its first proposal on the subject in the coming weeks. There will be two additional comment periods before a final plan is proposed and implemented.
