Copyright Anchorage Daily News
Trump officials are planning to propose oil drilling off the California coast for the first time in decades, according to a draft map reviewed by The Washington Post, a move sure to antagonize Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats in California. The administration’s plan proposes six offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030 in areas along the California coast. The plan also envisions expanding drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, an area where drilling has generally been avoided because it faces stiff opposition from many in Florida who fear an oil spill could spoil their beaches and devastate the tourism industry. The administration is considering lease sales there in 2029 and 2030. In Alaska, more than 20 lease sales are being floated through 2031 in virtually all offshore areas, including in the High Arctic, an area more than 200 miles offshore in the Arctic Ocean. The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ten oil and energy groups, led by the American Petroleum Institute, jointly stated in a June letter that all areas “with the potential to generate jobs, new revenue, and additional production to advance America’s energy dominance should be considered for inclusion.” The comment letter defended potential new drilling near California, noting the history of oil production in areas leased more than 50 years ago. “Undiscovered resources could be readily produced given the array of existing infrastructure in the area, particularly in southern California,” the letter said. The industry voiced support for drilling in the eastern gulf, saying its proximity to heavily developed areas would allow companies to begin “new production relatively quickly.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) vowed in June to resist offshore oil drilling, joining attorneys general in nine other states in opposing drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. “President Trump is once again taking action to line the pockets of his Big Oil friends. This time, he’s expanding oil and gas development by attempting to drill in our coastal communities,” Bonta said at the time. “We won’t stand idly by as the President continues to ignore science.” The offshore oil plan, which would remain in place for five years once finalized, comes in addition to a raft of offshore oil lease auctions already approved in President Donald Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill. That includes 30 lease auctions in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 15 years, and six auctions off the Alaska coast in the next decade. The draft proposal is probably at least a year away from final approval, and any new production would take several more years. The High Arctic region under consideration is extremely remote and has never been drilled before. “It’s basically impossible to clean up an oil spill if it happened up there, because it’s so remote, conditions are so extreme and it’s a really fragile environment,” said Valerie Cleland, a senior manager for ocean energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Whether energy companies would ultimately be interested in drilling in these new areas remains unclear. The federal government has not held lease sales on the Pacific Coast since the 1980s. The Trump administration is pushing firms to expand domestic drilling operations. But some companies worry prices will not be high enough to make such expansions profitable. “In many of these areas, there has been so little exploration in recent decades that it is hard to tell what the viable resource base would even be,” said Ben Cahill, an energy markets scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. “It is an open question whether companies would be interested.” Interest in the gulf coast, where companies have been drilling for years, is much stronger. Those areas also have all the necessary infrastructure in place and communities that are supportive of the industry and its growth. Trying to open California to new exploration would be an entirely different undertaking. “Even in federal offshore waters, you still need to get products to market. You would have to build infrastructure that is not readily available like it is in the gulf,” Cahill said. Cahill added that companies are likely to think very carefully about taking that plunge at a time when there are still so many resources available along the coast of states that support offshore drilling. Industry groups have argued that drilling should also be considered in the Atlantic. An earlier version of the draft plan included possible drilling on the East Coast, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle. For development to proceed in the eastern gulf, Trump would need to reverse a moratorium he issued in his first term that remains in effect until 2032. “Coastal governors don’t want this, but I think we’re in a different political reality. The risk seems a little more real than in the past,” Cleland said.
