Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter
The Department of the Interior (DOI) unveiled its proposal Thursday to open broad swaths of coastal waters to oil and gas drilling in a move that has drawn bipartisan resistance.
The DOI directed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Thursday to take the “necessary steps” to eliminate former President Joe Biden’s 2024-2029 oil and gas leasing scheme. The Trump approved “expansive” replacement plan seeks to develop 1.27 billion acres of viable extraction sites.
After the Biden administration imposed a broad offshore drilling ban and set a record-low leasing schedule, the Trump administration is now pushing to restart development across federal lands and waters. The new proposal seeks to explore drilling off the coasts of Alaska, California and Florida.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has staunchly opposed the idea of drilling in Golden State waters, and even some Florida republicans have also come out against the proposal, according to E&E News.
“Offshore oil and gas production does not happen overnight. It takes years of planning, investment, and hard work before barrels reach the market,” DOI Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday. “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.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Torpedoing Biden’s Oil And Gas Crackdown)
Donald Trump’s idiotic proposal to sell off California’s coasts to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water.
We will not stand by as our coastal economy and communities are put in danger. https://t.co/ZMZql40nIS
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) November 20, 2025
The Golden State may soon be facing a gas crisis as multiple major refineries prepare to shutter and more stringent regulations on the oil and gas industries take effect.
Florida Republicans including Sen. Rick Scott, Sen. Ashley Moody, Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Rep. Vern Buchanan told E&E News they wanted the state to remain off limits to offshore oil and gas lease expansion. Scott and Bilirakis stopped short of condemning the DOI proposal, while Buchanan and Moody remain firmly opposed to any drilling off Florida’s beaches.
“The new maps released today by @SecretaryBurgum and @Interior outlining potential new offshore oil drilling sites in the Gulf of America are HIGHLY concerning — and we will be engaging directly with the department on this issue,” Moody wrote on X on Thursday.
President Donald Trump signed a day one executive order to “unleash American energy” and declared a national energy emergency. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) went further, instructing the DOI and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to open more domestic energy exploration opportunities and “immediately resume onshore quarterly lease sales in specified states.”
Trump has emphasized boosting conventional energy sources, which contrasts with Biden’s stifling of the oil and gas industry. Biden froze liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, blocked the major Keystone XL pipeline and halted BLM lease approvals on his first day as president, instead championing a green energy agenda to the tune of billions in subsidies, loans and grants.
Energy sector insiders like American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers celebrated the plan, stating that “after years of delay in federal leasing, this is a historic step toward unleashing our nation’s vast offshore resources.”
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Every person uses natural materials like air and water and glucose from birth to death without question of stopping. If elements like Oxygen and Nitrogen and Hydrogen are used as a right without question, why should any other element like Carbon be different and singled out for special laws designed by sad minorities to stop their use?
We have a world containing virtually all chemical elements and a huge number of chemical compounds, some of which are wonderfully useful. Yet some people “believe” that they have a right to stop their use by others. To them I say that your argument fails if you do not give up breathing.
I get this all the time as a “dirty miner” from people who know little about mining except an irrational belief in “bad”. Why? Geoff S
Add to your insightful comments, all life on this planet is carbon based.
“Oh no, we don’t want any mining here” is what the ignorant of the UK say, this including just about everybody involved in education, teachers and students alike.
“But what we do want is really easy, like – we want wind and solar generation, huge batteries, batteries for EVs, we want to increase the grid size by 3-fold, and this will provide free electricity – like, wind and solar is free, right – which will make us energy independent and energy secure, and we want all use of fossil fuels ended by, like . . . yesterday. Oh, and the metals and minerals needed for all the renewable equipment that some horrible people talk about . . . yeah, like, we don’t know where it comes from and we don’t care.”
Youngsters today are literally being taught to be stupid. And they have no concept of the fact that civilisation as we know it, and as aspired to by the 3rd world . . . depends upon mining.
FIMMM.
Youth of today is more uneducated on purpose than stupid. We all laughed 20 years ago when some young 20 something asks why do we have to slaughter cows when we can just buy hamburger at the grocery store. Lack of education has continued to the point they don’t know their phone battery is made out of material mined from the earth, after all you just go down to the store and buy a battery.
Real wealth comes out of the ground. Nobody is paying high prices for nitrogen and oxygen. If you don’t dig the other elements up and use them, then you’re poor, because that’s all there is.
With appropriate environmental care, this is an obvious step.There is extensive experience for coping with hurricanes, spills, etc. We should also work with PEMEX to clean up their poor practice and develop Gulf resources carefully. CA can go their own path downhill. Newsom will understand – no ticket, no laundry.
Unless it is French Laundry
That was the idea, the swine.
A quick search on the alleged anti-drillers:
From his website: “Congressman Bilirakis has been active in Congressional hearings focused on reducing carbon emissions, boosting renewable energy options …”
From his (Vern Buchanan’s) website: “Congress should pass a bill that I introduced with Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), the Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act (H.R. 1684) to expand the solar investment tax credit to include energy storage technology for utilities, businesses and homes …”
From her website: “Today [10/30/2025], Senator Ashley Moody announced she is introducing the American Shores Protection Act to prohibit oil drilling and natural gas exploration and development near Florida’s coastline. This legislation would extend the drilling moratorium, which includes the shores of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, from 2022 to 2032 …”
From his (Sen Rick Scott’s) website: [Nov 2. 2022] “For too long, Democrats in Washington and in liberal states across our nation have been fearmongering to rid America of fossil fuels. Unchecked by their friends in the mainstream media, these leftist radicals have claimed that we are in the midst of a climate crisis and doomed unless we make an immediate transition to “clean and renewable” energy like wind and solar. They are wrong and, if left unchallenged, their war on U.S. energy will wreak havoc on our nation and countless American families.”
So, one out of the four is not a climatista/RINO.
Three delusional Republican politicians.
The Republican Party has some work to do educating its members on the benefits of oil, natural gas and coal, and how these can be obtained with minimal environmental damage, and the detrimental effects of windmills and industrial solar, including the environmental damage they do.
Climate Alarmist Republicans are just as wrong about CO2 as Climate Alarmist Democrats. Their feet should be held to the fire.
Forbidding resource use is NOT the solution. The answer is responsible usage through better legislation to ensure reasonable environmental issues are discussed and implemented, while allowing extraction and of course, the restoration of sites afterwards.
Forbidding things has never led to anything useful, it’s the lazy legislator’s solution in face of problematic issues, instead of doing their job.
Anyone remember the consequences of Prohibition?
I doubt they really believe what they’re saying- it’s just for their constituents. I’m sure they’ll be happy to see more drilling off their shores- as it’ll help their local economies.
California Tidelands oil is held in trust for all residents of California.
Donald Trump is not suggesting that California Tidelands will be drilled and pumped, as those are not under federal jurisdiction.
Democrats in California think that “holding in trust” means not using it, and that’s exactly what they have been doing since 1970.
No one ever mentions that the Getty Family controls imports of Ecuadorian oil and the Brown Family controls imports of Indonesian oil, the two biggest suppliers of crude oil to California.
No one ever mentions that Gavin Newsom was adopted by the Getty Family and of course Edmund G. “Pat” Brown and Jerry Brown and his sister are the Brown Family.
Fascinating.
“From her website: “Today [10/30/2025], Senator Ashley Moody announced she is introducing the American Shores Protection Act to prohibit oil drilling and natural gas exploration and development near Florida’s coastline. This legislation would extend the drilling moratorium, which includes the shores of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, from 2022 to 2032 …””
Senator Moody wants to ban oil and gas exploration not only around Florida, but around Georgia and South Carolina.
I wonder what the people of Georgia and South Carolina think about that? Or the people of Florida, for that matter?
Unfortunately the force is strong with the anti drill. This is where economy meets environmental bias.
How long must we sing this song?
“Trump is dead” — Newsom
“Newsom is dead” — Trump
Reminds of the age-old disputation*:
“God is dead” — Nietzsche, 1883
“Nietzsche is dead” — God, 1900
*T-shirt slogan seen around college philosophy departments
God says.. “I never actually met Nietzsche… doubt I will Newscum, either, for that matter. !”
“Gov Gruesome”
I like it!
Newsow ?
(gotta trough )
😉
Explore baby, explore.Then lease baby, lease. Then drill baby, drill. Baby steps.
It made me smile that the Department of the Interior is responsible for coastal waters.
These politicians would be far more helpful if they promoted a transition to gas where possible because it has proved so beneficial in reducing the CO2 emissions of the US and allow the renewable technology to mature and become cost effective through small pilot projects far from the grid where it is more pratical and cheaper. That would be a win for both sides.