By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced new oil drilling off the coasts of California and Florida on Thursday for the first time in decades, advancing a project that critics say could harm coastal communities and ecosystems as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production.
The oil industry has been 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 the coasts of Florida and part of Alabama, since 1995, due to the possibility of oil spills. California has some offshore oil platforms, but there have been no new leases in federal waters since the mid-1980s.
Since taking office for the second time in January, Trump has systematically reversed former President Joe Biden’s focus on curbing climate change to pursue what the Republican calls “energy dominance” in the global market. Trump, who recently called climate change “the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the world,” created a National Energy Mastery Council and ordered it to move quickly to increase already record energy production particularly from fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has blocked renewable energy sources like offshore wind and canceled billions of dollars in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects across the country.
Even before it was released, the offshore drilling plan has been met with strong opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considering a 2028 presidential run and has become a prominent Trump critic. Newsom declared the idea “dead on arrival” in a social media post. 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.
Plans to allow drilling off the coasts of California, Alaska and Florida
The administration’s plan proposes six offshore lease sales off the California coast.
It also stipulates new drilling off the coast of Florida in areas at least 160 kilometers (100 miles) from that state’s coast. The area earmarked for the lease 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 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 kilometers (200 miles) offshore in the Arctic Ocean.
All offshore areas “with the potential to generate jobs, new revenue, and additional production to advance U.S. energy dominance should be considered for inclusion,” the American Petroleum Institute and other groups said in a 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 existing infrastructure set in the area, particularly in Southern California,” the letter said.
California and Florida opposition
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican and Trump ally, helped persuade Trump officials to abandon a similar offshore plan in 2018 when he was governor. Last week, Scott and Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody co-sponsored a bill to maintain a moratorium on offshore drilling in the state that 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. “I will always work to keep Florida’s coasts pristine and protect our natural treasures for generations to come.”
A spokesperson for Newsom stated that Trump officials had not formally shared the plan, but said that “expensive and riskier offshore drilling would 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 1969 Santa Barbara spill that helped fuel the modern environmental movement. Although no new federal leases have been offered since the mid-1980s, drilling from existing platforms continues.
Newsom expressed support for greater offshore control after a 2021 spill off Huntington Beach and has backed a congressional effort to ban new offshore drilling off the West Coast.
A Texas-based company, backed by the Trump administration, is seeking to restart production in waters off Santa Barbara damaged by an oil spill in 2015. The administration has praised the plan by Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp. as the kind of project Trump wants to boost U.S. energy production as the federal government removes regulatory barriers.
Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term reversing Biden’s ban on future offshore oil drilling off the East and West coasts. A federal court later overturned Biden’s order to remove 625 million acres of federal waters from oil development.
Environmental and economic concerns about oil spills
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, devastate coastal ecosystems, and put the health and safety of millions of Americans at risk.”
Oil spills “not only cause irreparable environmental damage, but also suppress coastal home values, harm tourism economies, and weaken coastal infrastructure,” the lawmakers said in a letter signed by dozens of Democrats. A disastrous oil spill can cost taxpayers billions in lost revenue, cleanup costs and ecosystem restoration, they said.
Joseph Gordon, campaign director of the environmental group Oceana, called the Trump administration’s latest plan “an oil spill nightmare.”
Coastal communities “depend on healthy oceans for economic security and their cherished way of life,” he said. “We need to protect our coasts from more offshore drilling, not put them up for sale 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.”
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.
