Trump plans huge oil drilling expansion off California and Alaska coasts

The Trump administration unveiled plans Thursday for a huge oil drilling expansion off the coasts of Alaska, California and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Department of Interior proposed 34 lease sales to drill in those waters through 2031, a big expansion compared to the Biden administration program that allowed just three lease sales and only in the Gulf.

The Trump program would include lease sales in 21 areas off Alaska’s coast, six off the Pacific coast and seven in the Gulf of Mexico. It would mark the first time since 1984 that Interior has allowed a new lease in the Pacific, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Interior’s proposal is not a final program. It still must undergo further review.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum accused the Biden administration “crippling the long-term pipeline of America’s offshore production” by slamming the brakes on oil and gas leasing.

More than 100 Democratic lawmakers expressed their opposition to the plan in an Oct. 30 letter addressed to President Donald Trump and Burgum.

“Expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Natural Resources Defense Council condemned the Trump plan as egregious and reckless in a post Thursday.

“The proposal would open up untouched waters of Alaska to drilling, attempt to resurrect the offshore oil and gas industry in California, and offer up waters off the coast of Florida that haven’t been put up for leasing in decades — in addition to adding even more leasing in the Gulf of Mexico,” the NRDC said.

“This plan would damage these places, and the people who rely on them, for generations,” the environmental group said.