OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:33 AM – Friday, November 21, 2025
The Trump administration has announced plans to drill for oil off the coasts of California and Florida for the first time in decades.
The five-year plan, announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of the Interior, includes six offshore lease sales along the California coast between 2027 and 2030.
New drilling will also take place off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of America — at least 100 miles from the shore. Drilling leases in the newly designated South-Central Gulf area will be sold. This is separate from the Eastern Gulf, where a moratorium signed by President Donald Trump in his first term bars drilling due to its proximity to Florida’s tourism-friendly coast.
It would also compel over 20 lease sales off the coast of Alaska, as well, including an area in the Arctic Ocean designated as the High Arctic, more than 200 miles from the shore.
“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,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
Advertisement“We commend Secretary Burgum and the Department of the Interior for taking this important step to fix a leasing program that was wholly insufficient,” National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said in a statement.
The American Petroleum Institute described the plan as a “historic step” toward unlocking more offshore resources, emphasizing California’s history as an oil-producing state and therefore has existing infrastructure to support the new plans.
The White House under Trump has been systematically reversing the Biden administration’s efforts on climate change in favor of “energy dominance” for the United States.
California and Florida both heavily rely on tourism, especially to their beaches, which has led to pushback from within both states on the White House’s proposal.
Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) stated that Florida’s coasts “must remain off the table for oil drilling.” California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) called Trump’s plan “idiotic.”
“Donald Trump’s idiotic proposal to sell off California’s coasts to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water,” Newsom wrote on X Thursday. “We will not stand by as our coastal economy and communities are put in danger.”
“This is not just a little bit offshore drilling. This is the entire California coast, every inch of Alaska, even the eastern Gulf of Mexico,” said Representative Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). “Basically, everywhere Big Oil has been salivating to drill for decades.”
Representative Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.), along with a group of Florida lawmakers, raised national security concerns in a letter to Trump on Thursday, warning that some proposed drilling parcels could interfere with military training areas. They wrote that this plan “would have a chilling effect on the military’s ability to test new munitions, including hypersonic and counter-drone weaponry.”
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