The Trump administration on Thursday announced plans to open the Pacific Ocean to new oil and gas leases for the first time in more than four decades.<\/p>\n
The draft plan released by the U.S. Department of the Interior confirms rumors<\/a> that have been swirling for weeks. The proposal<\/a> would see as many as 34 offshore lease sales across 1.27 billion acres of federal waters in the Outer Continental Shelf through 2031, including six areas along the Pacific Coast, 21 off the coast of Alaska and seven in the Gulf of Mexico. <\/p>\n Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the plan with an order titled \u201cUnleashing American Offshore Energy,<\/a>\u201d which directs the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to terminate former President Biden\u2019s much more limited plan, which called for only three new oil and gas leases through 2029, the lowest number ever and only in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Biden administration slammed the brakes on offshore oil and gas leasing and crippled the long-term pipeline of America\u2019s offshore production,\u201d Burgum said in a statement. \u201cBy moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America\u2019s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n California has about two dozen oil platforms in state and federal waters off the coast, but most are considered at or near the end of their productive life. The state has not seen new oil leases in federal waters since 1984, largely due to public opposition following a disastrous oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969.<\/p>\n \u201cThis draft plan is an oil spill nightmare,\u201d said Joseph Gordon, campaign director with the nonprofit ocean conservation organization Oceana. \u201cThe last thing America needs now is a massive expansion of offshore drilling that could shut down our shores with catastrophic oil spills.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal would be a \u201cbetrayal of the bipartisan voices \u2014 including U.S. lawmakers, business leaders, and the people who live along the coasts \u2014 who oppose more offshore drilling,\u201d Gordon said, noting that coastal economies are dependent on clean ocean waters.<\/p>\n Oil companies have expressed interest in the region, however. <\/p>\n \u201cNo area should be taken off the table before it is given full consideration,\u201d Dan Naatz, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the Independent Petroleum Assn. of Americas, said in a recent statement to The Times.<\/p>\n Offshore energy groups lauded the plan, with the National Ocean Industries Assn. noting in a statement that \u201cstrategic energy leadership necessarily means opening the door to investment in new areas, including the Pacific, Atlantic, Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Petroleum Institute and other leading oil and gas trade groups said similarly in a June letter<\/a> that they support evaluating all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for new leases because \u201ccontinuous exploration and drilling will be needed\u201d to ensure long-term energy security and meet U.S. energy demands into 2050.<\/p>\n According to the BOEM<\/a>, the Pacific region along Washington, Oregon and California has an estimated 200 million barrels of proven reserves and and more than 10 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources \u2014 the majority off of Southern California. <\/p>\n (Undiscovered resources are speculative based on geology, surveys and modeling and have not yet been proven by drilling. The estimates don\u2019t include economic considerations, such as whether extraction would be profitable or too deep to be feasible.)<\/p>\n Alaska has about 25 billion barrels and the Gulf of Mexico has nearly 30 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources, according to BOEM.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Gulf is still the granddaddy,\u201d said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy industry analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. He doubted oil companies are \u201cchamping at the bit to go into Southern California, both because the resources itself is limited and because the politics are challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the state is likely to put up a fight, with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday describing the plan as \u201cidiotic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis reckless attempt to sell out our coastline to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water,\u201d Newsom said in a statement. \u201cCalifornians remember the environmental and economic devastation of past oil spills. For decades, California has stood firm in our opposition to new offshore drilling, and nothing will change that. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect our coastline.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a joint statement after the announcement that the plan is an attempt to \u201cdestroy one of the most valuable, most protected coastlines in the world and hand it over to the fossil fuel industry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis plan targets California and the whole West Coast because they think we will roll over,\u201d the lawmakers said. \u201cThey are wrong. We\u2019re going to fight this with everything we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Environmental groups also vowed to fight the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cNew leases in the five-year drilling plan will damage our coastlines and communities, while threatening coastal recreation and tourism industries that contribute billions of dollars to our nation\u2019s economy,\u201d said Chad Nelsen, chief executive of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation, adding that \u201cwe call on the president and Congress to reject new offshore oil drilling off U.S. coasts.\u201d <\/p>\n Experts said California has built up a body of laws and regulations that could pose challenges for oil companies hoping to pursue new leases in the area, such as the California Coastal Sanctuary law, the California Coastal Act, the California Environmental Quality Act and a 2025 Assembly bill<\/a> that would in effect prevent oil companies from using existing infrastructure in state waters to export or bring ashore new production from federal offshore leases. <\/p>\n