PoliticoPro: California Dems join chorus of lawmakers hoping to influence Trump offshore drilling plan
By Noah Baustin
California Democrats joined the bipartisan chorus of lawmakers calling for major changes to the Trump administration’s proposal to boost offshore oil and gas production.
What happened: A coalition of 28 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter Thursday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and President Donald Trump opposing the administration’s proposal to hold six oil and gas lease sales in the federal waters off the California coast.
“Any expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent,” the lawmakers wrote.
Why it matters: The letter, led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), signals California leaders’ intent to continue pushing the state’s exclusion from the new five-year National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program despite the limited leverage they have with the Trump administration.
Context: The Trump administration unveiled its offshore oil and gas leasing proposal last month. In line with Trump’s maximalist posture on oil and gas, the Interior Department is considering six sales off the California coast, as well as auctions in portions of the Gulf of Mexico near Florida and in waters off Alaska in an area of the High Arctic previously untouched by oil drilling.
The proposal has sparked opposition from lawmakers in all three states, including Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, who said, “We just can’t afford to even give anybody an inch,” after the plan was released.
Even Alaska’s oil-friendly senators have begun lobbying Burgum to pull the plug on lease sales in Arctic waters, arguing production should be focused on less remote portions of the state.
While there are currently companies producing oil and gas off the California coast in waters that were leased by the mid-1980s, drilling there has declined in recent decades. The most recent federal oil and gas lease sale off the California coast took place in 1984. Strict state environmental regulations would make it difficult for any new driller to transport its oil from federal waters to the California coastline.
The Interior Department declined to comment on the letter.
What’s next: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is currently accepting comments on its initial proposal and plans to release a second proposal before presenting its final plan. Stakeholders will have until Jan. 23 to submit their comments.
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