The Trump administration announced new oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts for the first time in decades on Thursday, as President Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems.
The oil industry has been seeking access to new offshore areas, including off Southern California and Florida, as a way to boost U.S. energy security and jobs. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Florida and part of offshore Alabama, since 1995, because of concerns about oil spills. California has some offshore oil rigs, but there has been no new leasing in federal waters since the mid-1980s.
Even before it was released, the offshore drilling plan has been met with strong opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is eyeing a 2028 presidential run and has emerged as a leading Trump critic. The proposal is also likely to draw bipartisan opposition in Florida. Tourism and access to clean beaches are key parts of the economy in both states.
The administration’s plan proposes six offshore lease sales off the coast of California.
It also calls for new drilling off the coast of Florida in areas at least 100 miles from that state’s shore. 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 platforms.
The five-year plan also would compel more than 20 lease sales off the coast of Alaska, including a newly designated area known as the High Arctic, more than 200 miles offshore in the Arctic Ocean.
CBS News reported earlier this month that the Trump administration was planning to hold offshore drilling auctions in several areas, including off the coasts of California, New England and the Carolinas. Plans viewed by CBS News called for lease sales off California as soon as 2027, and off Alaska as soon as next year.
The energy industry has encouraged the Trump administration to expand offshore drilling. All offshore areas “with the potential to generate jobs, new revenue and additional production to advance America’s energy dominance should be considered for inclusion,” the American Petroleum Institute and other groups said in a joint letter to the administration in June.
Some Florida politicians have pushed back on offshore drilling plans. Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican and Trump ally, helped persuade Trump administration officials to drop a similar offshore plan in 2018 when he was governor. Earlier this month, Scott and fellow Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody co-sponsored a bill to maintain a moratorium on offshore drilling in the state that Mr. Trump signed in his first term.
“As Floridians, we know how vital our beautiful beaches and coastal waters are to our state’s economy, environment and way of life,” Scott said in a statement announcing the bill. “I will always work to keep Florida’s shores pristine and protect our natural treasures for generations to come.”
A Newsom spokesman told the Associated Press that officials had not formally shared the expanded drilling plan, but said “expensive and riskier offshore drilling would put our communities at risk and undermine the economic stability of our coastal economies.” Newsom pronounced the plan “dead on arrival” in a social media post last week.
California has been a leader in restricting offshore oil drilling since the infamous 1969 Santa Barbara spill that helped spark the modern environmental movement. While there have been no new federal leases offered since the mid-1980s, drilling from existing platforms continues.
Newsom expressed support for greater offshore controls after a 2021 spill off Huntington Beach and has backed a congressional effort 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 Santa Barbara, California, damaged by a 2015 oil spill. The administration has hailed the plan by Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp. as the kind of project Mr. Trump wants to increase U.S. energy production as the federal government removes regulatory barriers.
Since taking office for a second time in January, Mr. Trump has reversed former President Joe Biden’s focus on climate change to pursue what he calls U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. The president created a National Energy Dominance Council and directed it to move quickly to drive up already record-high U.S. energy production, particularly fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term reversing Biden’s ban on future offshore oil drilling on the East and West coasts. A federal court later struck down Biden’s order to withdraw 625 million acres of federal waters from oil development.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has blocked renewable energy sources such as offshore wind and canceled billions of dollars in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.
Democratic lawmakers, including California 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, ravage coastal ecosystems, and put millions of Americans’ health and safety at risk.”
Oil spills “not only cause irreparable environmental damage, but also suppress the value of coastal homes, harm tourism economies and weaken coastal infrastructure,” the lawmakers said in a letter signed by dozens of Democrats. One disastrous oil spill can cost taxpayers billions in lost revenue, cleanup costs and ecosystem restoration, they said.
The League of Conservation Voters called Thursday’s plan “dangerous.”
“This needless, reckless expansion of offshore drilling would jeopardize our coastal communities, public health, local economies, and the environment, while prolonging our dependence on fossil fuels and doing nothing to lower costs,” America Fitzpatrick, the group’s conservation program director, said in a statement.
