Administration Backs Off Bid for Atlantic Oil Drilling, But Gulf Still on Table

The Trump administration is ruling out selling offshore oil and gas leases along the US East Coast, after its initial plan for auctioning them drew alarm from Republican strongholds in the Southeast.

The shift in thinking comes after the White House earlier contemplated a more expansive approach to auctioning offshore drilling rights, having drafted plans for potential sales up and down the US East Coast, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because they aren’t authorized to discuss the deliberations.

But news reports on that broader approach drew swift condemnation from environmentalists and provoked alarm among some Republican stakeholders in the Southeast due to fears it could impact tourism. Concerns about Atlantic oil and gas drilling helped sink an earlier plan by President Donald Trump to open up the region during his first term.

The Interior Department’s draft proposed program, as it is known, could still be further refined as officials hone a version for public release, the people said. The proposal could be formally advanced in coming weeks, marking the opening step in a long process toward developing a new five-year schedule for selling offshore oil and gas leases.

The offshore leasing programs, mandated by federal law, are typically whittled down during a long formal process subjecting them to public comment and congressional scrutiny — so even an expansive initial approach would likely be scaled back before it is finalized.

While further changes are possible before public release, for now administration officials are still preparing to include potential sales of leases in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of America, and in waters near the US West Coast and Alaska.

The Interior Department said it wouldn’t comment on a leaked draft and deliberative information. A White House official said the administration wouldn’t discuss ongoing policy discussions and said that President Trump had delivered on promises to unleash American energy by rolling back Biden’s regulations.

The draft blueprint for Atlantic oil and gas drilling in Trump’s first term drew fierce opposition from nearly 150 East Coast municipalities and coastal state leaders, including Republicans in Florida and South Carolina.

Environmentalists have argued there is no room in a warming world to expand oil and gas production. Drilling operations, they say, could imperil marine habitats and the animals that depend on them.

The oil industry, meanwhile, has generally pushed for more opportunities to drill and has encouraged efforts to expand leasing in the Gulf. Oil companies, however, have shown limited appetite to explore some new US waters far beyond the Gulf, given uncertain prospects and public opposition.

Relatively little is known about potential oil and gas along the East Coast, with most existing data tied to decades-old geological surveys and some four-dozen wells drilled in the 1970s and 1980s.

Photo: (Tim Rue/Bloomberg)

Topics Energy Oil Gas