Environment — News & Analysis

Interior proposes 34 new offshore oil and gas lease sales, including off California and Florida (November 20, 2025)

November 20, 2025 — The Interior Department proposed a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program offering 34 new lease sales between 2026 and 2031, across more than one billion acres of U.S. waters — including areas off the coasts of California, Florida, and Alaska that have been off-limits to drilling for decades. The Biden administration's preceding five-year plan had included a record-low three lease sales; the Trump plan would expand leasing to waters untouched by rigs for a generation.

The California and Florida offshore areas were withdrawn from leasing by Presidents Biden and Obama respectively; Trump's January 20 executive order had revoked those withdrawals on day one. Industry analysts noted that oil companies had shown limited commercial interest in most of the newly opened areas — particularly off California and Florida, where extraction costs are high and opposition from coastal communities, tourism industries, and state governments is fierce. The American Petroleum Institute had not formally requested the expansion of leasing into those areas.

Environmental groups called the plan reckless and pledged to challenge it in court, noting that once a five-year leasing program is finalized it is difficult to change, giving the plan lasting consequences beyond the current administration. Coastal governors in Florida and California issued statements opposing offshore drilling in their waters. NRDC warned that the plan would "damage these places, and the people who rely on them, for generations" through marine habitat destruction, oil spill risk, and toxic air pollution.