Trump Expands Offshore Drilling, Colliding With Newsom

The Interior Department on Thursday announced plans to open federal waters off California, Florida, and Alaska to new oil and gas leasing, part of President Donald Trump's push to tap America's offshore energy reserves.

The department is considering as many as 34 auctions in federal waters between 2026 and 2031, including up to six sales off Southern California, two in the eastern Gulf, and 21 off Alaska.

An order by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum titled "Unleashing American Offshore Energy" directs the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to terminate what the Interior Department described as the "restrictive" Biden-era 2024-2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program and replace it with an expansive 11th National OCS Program by October 2026.

"Offshore oil and gas production does not happen overnight. It takes years of planning, investment, and hard work before barrels reach the market," Burgum said in a news release.

"The Biden administration slammed the brakes on offshore oil and gas leasing and crippled the long-term pipeline of America's offshore production.

"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 lease sales in the plan come in addition to dozens mandated under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the Gulf and Alaska's Cook Inlet.

"After years of delay in federal leasing, this is a historic step toward unleashing our nation's vast offshore resources," Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement.

"We applaud Secretary Burgum for laying the groundwork for a new and more expansive five-year program that unlocks opportunities for long-term investment offshore and supports energy affordability at a time of rising demand at home and abroad."

The announcement adds friction between Trump's energy expansion goals and Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom's climate agenda, setting up a significant policy clash as the leasing program moves toward completion next year.

Newsom has championed California as a global model for phasing out fossil fuels, setting aggressive targets to eliminate oil extraction and expand solar, wind, and other renewable sources.

"Donald Trump's idiotic proposal to sell off California's coasts to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water," Newsom wrote Thursday on X. "We will not stand by as our coastal economy and communities are put in danger."

Although the federal plan revives the possibility of new drilling off the state's coast for the first time in decades, Newsom has limited authority to stop it.

Under federal law, waters beyond 3 miles off the coastline fall under federal control, meaning Newsom cannot veto or block the Interior Department from offering new offshore leases. The 11th Outer Continental Shelf leasing program is run solely by the federal government.

Still, California retains tools that could frustrate, delay, and complicate offshore drilling — but it cannot prevent the federal government from opening waters to new lease sales.

Without access to ports, pipelines, or state-regulated infrastructure, though, offshore production can become economically unworkable.

Companies are already producing oil and gas off the California coast in territory originally leased through the mid-1980s, but drilling there has declined for decades.

A series of congressional and presidential actions stifled new leasing in the Pacific, and strict environmental regulations made it difficult to transport oil from federal waters to the state's coastline.

"Trump's war on marine life continues with this absolutely unhinged attack on our coasts," Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.

"Auctioning off nearly the entire U.S. coast to Big Oil will inflict oil spill after devastating oil spill, harm whales and sea turtles and wreck fisheries and coastal economies. I'm confident that Americans across the political spectrum will come together to fight Trump's plan to smear toxic crude across our beaches and oceans."

The new policy also sets up a clash with Florida politicians who have opposed drilling for decades over fears that an oil spill would devastate the state's tourism industry.

After Trump's first administration planned to open nearly all federal waters to drilling was heavily criticized, Trump extended a preexisting moratorium on drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina until 2032.