White House Plan Targets Florida, West for Coastal Oil Drilling

The Trump administration is proposing to open new areas off of California, Florida and Alaska to crude drilling as part of a draft blueprint released Thursday that would dramatically expand the sale of oil and natural gas rights.

In all, the Interior Department is proposing as many as 34 offshore lease sales including 21 off the coast of Alaska, six along the Pacific Coast and seven in Gulf of Mexico, including waters near Florida and Alabama that have been off limits for three decades. Republican leaders in those southern states have long opposed drilling in such sensitive areas because of concern about the potential for oil spills that could cripple important industries like fishing and tourism.

As proposed, the leasing plan marks a dramatic expansion of energy exploration that would open more than 1 billion acres of coastal zones to drilling.

“The Biden administration slammed the brakes on offshore oil and gas leasing and crippled the long-term pipeline of America’s offshore production,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come.”

The American Petroleum Institute, the nation’s largest oil and gas trade group, called the plan “historic,” while the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council said it amounts to a “reckless” giveaway to Big Oil.

The proposal, which would replace the Biden era plan that would hold just three auctions from 2024 to 2029, is just an initial step and is likely to be whittled down during several months of public comment and other reviews before it’s finalized. Even before it was released, Trump administration officials opted to remove the sale of oil and gas rights along the East Coast, after a leaked version drew alarm from southeast Republicans opposed to drilling in the Atlantic.

Still, the extent of the proposal developed by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management underscores Trump’s pledge to expand domestic energy production. It includes lease sales in in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet and Chukchi Sea, as well as the for the first time in the high arctic, an area some 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of the Alaska coast untouched by oil drilling that opponents say is especially environmentally fragile.

An index of oilfield contractors that includes major offshore drillers such as Transocean Ltd. fell 3.1% in New York, extending the 12-month decline to 13%. Drilling stocks have been under pressure as a looming worldwide oversupply of crude weighs on oil prices.

Industry advocates said the broad scope of the blueprint is important because it’s likely to shrink as it heads toward finalization.

“This a large, cast-a-wide-net step in the process,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. “This is not the final step and it’s important to keep as much on the table as possible.”

The plan is certain to be challenged by environmental groups and West Coast lawmakers. California Governor Gavin Newsom has already declared the plan to sell new oil drilling rights off the West Coast “dead on arrival.”

While there are active, legacy oil leases off Southern California, new drilling rights in the region haven’t been up for auction since the mid-1980s. The so-called Pacific Outer Continental Shelf has been estimated to hold more than 10 billion barrels of crude.

“The last thing America needs now is a massive expansion of offshore drilling that could shut down our shores with catastrophic oil spills,” said Joseph Gordon, a campaign director at the environmental group Oceana. “This dangerous proposal to sell off millions of acres of our oceans is a betrayal of the bipartisan voices — including U.S. lawmakers, business leaders, and the people who live along the coasts — who oppose more offshore drilling.”

Photo: Platform Ellen and Elly, offshore oil and gas platforms operated by Beta Operating Company LLC, off the coast of Long Beach, California. (Tim Rue/Bloomberg)