Interior Department Proposes Plan to Wreck America’s Coasts with Offshore Drilling

Draft proposal of five-year offshore plan opens nearly all U.S. waters to drilling

​Press Release Date: November 20, 2025
Location: Washington, D.C.
Contact: Cory Gunkel, Megan Jordan | email: [email protected], [email protected] | tel: Cory Gunkel, 202.868.4061

Today, the Trump administration released a draft of its new offshore drilling plan for the next five years, which proposes opening the coast of California to oil and gas leasing. The plan also opens a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and vast areas off Alaska, to offshore leasing.

The plan proposes six offshore lease sales in California between 2027 and 2030. There have been no new leases issued in federal waters off California since the mid-1980s. The leasing proposal would also allow offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, outside of a 100-mile “buffer.” The Arctic Ocean would also see lease sales in the draft plan. Almost a decade ago, oil companies abandoned leases they owned in the Arctic Ocean following a series of mishaps, fines, government investigations, and, most famously, the grounding of the drill rig Kulluk.

The National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, also known as the Five-Year Plan, determines where the federal government will sell leases for offshore drilling from 2026-2031. The proposed draft plan would allow drilling across more than 1 billion acres of U.S. federal waters, including protected areas.

Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon released the following statement condemning the new proposal:
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“This draft plan is an oil spill nightmare! The last thing America needs now is a massive expansion of offshore drilling that could shut down our shores with catastrophic oil spills. Our coastal communities, and their multi-billion-dollar economies, rely on healthy oceans to survive. The Atlantic Coast will thankfully be spared, but this dangerous proposal to still 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 these coasts — who oppose more offshore drilling. Congress, and coastal state leaders, must stand together to defend all of our coasts and demand that the Trump administration go back to the drawing board to take their states out of the final plan. Our coastlines must be safeguarded, not given away to oil and gas interests.”

The introduction of this new draft opens a 60-day comment period in which the public can voice its concerns. After this comment period is complete, the Trump administration will issue a proposed program, with an additional 90-day comment period. Following that 90-day comment period, the administration will release the Proposed Final Program that will be sent to Congress for at least 60 days for consideration prior to finalizing the Five-Year Plan.

The process began with a Request For Information (RFI) on April 30 that started a 45-day comment period to allow stakeholders to provide input on offshore oil and gas drilling. The period closed with more than 85,000 comments, most of which opposed expanded lease sales.

A poll released by Oceana in July 2024 revealed that two-thirds of American voters (64%) support their elected officials protecting U.S. coastlines from new offshore drilling, with similar support among registered voters in coastal states (66%). 

“We cannot allow for offshore oil and gas expansion on the West Coast.  Coastal property owners, businesses, their communities and visitors were severely harmed by California’s 2015 and 2021 offshore oil spills,” said Grant Bixby, Principal Broker, Bixby Residential Group, and founding member of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast (@BAPPC), which represents over 8,100 West Coast business members. “Our own clients who operate vacation rentals received cancellations for months, and those visitors were lost to hundreds of other local businesses up and down the coast. Our harbors and beaches were completely shut down. Any offshore drilling is not worth the economic and environmental risk to our state which relies on a clean coast with open beaches, harbors, and wetlands.” 

“News that the Trump Administration’s Five-Year Plan dramatically expands drilling in the Gulf is a breach of the public’s right to clean and healthy waters,” said Martha Collins, Executive Director for Healthy Gulf. “The Gulf is already a sacrifice zone of air and water pollution and abandoned oil wells, and new drilling will be even more dangerous as the industry expands into deeper and riskier waters. The opening of the eastern Gulf to drilling directly contradicts Trump’s previous moratoriums keeping Florida waters off the table. Opening up waters from the high arctic to the Gulf will not move our country forward to a clean energy future and energy independence this administration so craves.”

“This plan is a dangerous gift to the oil and gas industry at the expense of our planet and shared future,” said Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš, Azul Founder and Executive Director. “This administration wants to open vast new areas of the West Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska to drilling – gutting environmental safeguards and endangering communities in the process. Latino voters across the country, and across party lines, overwhelmingly reject more offshore drilling, as seen in our 2024 National Azul Poll. Our communities have lived the consequences of oil spills and pollution, and they are calling on our leaders to move us beyond fossil fuels.”

“When we consider the earth as God’s beloved Creation and our neighbor as deeply connected to the land, air, and water we share, we must question decisions which appear to favor short-term gain over long-term flourishing,” said Avery Davis Lamb, Executive Director of Creation Justice Ministries. “The proposed expansion of offshore drilling in our nation’s waters not only threatens precious marine ecosystems, but also threatens the livelihoods of our neighbors who will be more exposed to toxic pollution. This announcement fails to provide the vision and justice our times demand. We strongly oppose this proposal and call for a transformative way forward — one that honors Creation, protects the vulnerable, and sets a course toward renewed life.” 

“The Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast lauds the exclusion of East Coast planning areas from the Draft Proposed Program, but we are disappointed to see what is still a serious expansion of oil and gas infrastructure in American waters. No coastal community deserves dirty oil drilling off their shores and the inevitable spills it will bring,” said Sandra Bundy, President of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast. “Coastal economies across the country will be impacted for decades into the future if this plan is finalized and we continue to see the results of reliance on fossil fuels at a time when we know we can and should do better.”

“The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce wants to thank all our state’s elected officials for their public opposition to drilling for oil in the Atlantic,” said Frank Knapp, President and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. “Not only were their voices important at the beginning of this planning process, but they were extremely critical after the news several weeks ago that the Atlantic would be included in the drilling plan.  Appreciation is well-deserved for the advocacy of Governor McMaster and our Congressional delegation led by Senator Graham.”

Over the past decade, hundreds of municipalities, 60,000 businesses, and 500,000 fishing families — as well as thousands of elected officials from both parties — have opposed offshore drilling activities off their waters.

There are significant risks with offshore drilling today, and oil spills continue to be an ongoing problem. More than 7,300 oil spills occurred in federal waters between 2010 and 2022 — an average of more than one spill every day. Offshore oil and gas drilling causes harmful pollution at every phase of the process, including exploration, production, and transportation.

A 2021 analysis by Oceana found that ending new leasing could prevent more than $720 billion in damage to people, property, and the environment. The oil industry currently holds more than 2,000 leases, according to a 2023 Oceana report, with 75% of that ocean acreage unused.
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For more information about Oceana’s campaign to prevent the expansion of offshore drilling in the United States, please click here.