New Drilling and More Spilling? New Oil and Gas Drilling Threatens Central Coast 

The Trump administration announced on Thursday a plan to potentially open the Santa Barbara Channel and other areas off the coast to new oil and gas drilling.

Under the proposal made public this week, over the span of five years, the Interior Department would sell off up to 34 new leases for drilling in federal waters — spanning 1.27 billion acres — six of which lie off the California coast. 

The state won’t go down without a fight. Governor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly promised to block any new drilling from happening along California’s coastline. But this scary “if” seems to be shaping into a terrifying “when” for both state officials and environmentalists. 

Advocates across the board shared fears for the West Coast’s “fragile regions,” including the Channel. Trump’s plans threaten California’s precious coastal resources, as well as its economy, wildlife, fishing, and community well-being, they warn. 

“Repeating past mistakes on this scale is foolish if not insane,” said Chris Voss, a lifelong commercial fisherman in Santa Barbara and Alaska and president of the Santa Barbara Commercial Fishermen.

“Why would we go back to extracting oil and gas from the ocean when we know burning fossil fuels poisons both the air and the water?” he questioned. “We have safer, cleaner renewable energy alternatives that generate the energy we need at lower cost, without threatening our fisheries and working waterfronts.” 

The Environmental Defense Center (EDC) — a main player in the game to hinder Houston oil company Sable Offshore’s restart of ExxonMobil’s old oil facilities on the Central Coast, which would likely benefit from the DOI’s plans — was one of many groups that immediately sounded the alarm. It’s the first time the federal government has opened the California coast to new lease sales since 1984, when Ronald Reagan was president, the EDC pointed out. 

New leasing and drilling “inevitably” means new oil spills, which has devastated Santa Barbara in the past, said Maggie Hall, EDC’s deputy chief counsel, in a statement. She cited the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill and 2015 Refugio Oil Spill as proof that “the risk is unacceptable.” 

The six leases off the California coast would be up for sale between 2027 and 2030. 

Beyond California, the plan also includes the auction of seven leases in the Gulf of Mexico, near Florida, through 2031, as well as 21 additional lease sales through 2031 off the coast of Alaska. That includes 200 miles of pristine and otherwise untouched offshore areas of the northern arctic, home to polar bears, whales, seals, and walruses — although it’s unclear whether oil companies would jump at the opportunity to drill there due to extreme weather conditions. 

It’s Trump’s latest move toward increasing fossil-fuel production in the United States, even as dozens of countries call for the phasing out of oil, gas, and coal due to their planet-warming impacts. Oil industry leaders are backing the plan as a way to strengthen the offshore industry, pointing to drilling as a generator of billions of dollars in annual tax revenue for both the federal government and state and local governments.

However, offshore drilling, as shown year after year through public polls across the political spectrum, is massively unpopular. And, according to marine economy reports, coastal tourism and recreation account for 67 percent of ocean-dependent jobs in California — where new drilling was banned in state waters more than three decades ago. Offshore drilling, by contrast, accounts for only 2 percent of coastal jobs. Governor Newsom called the proposed plan “dead on arrival.”  

Over the past decade, more than 100 municipalities, Tribal Councils, fishery managers, businesses, ports, and elected officials on both sides of the aisle have opposed drilling off the West Coast. 

Santa Barbara Congressmember Salud Carbajal and Governor Gavin Newsom each similarly called the plan a “reckless” and dangerous attempt to sell California’s coastline to “Big Oil,” with both officials vowing to fight the proposal. Newsom called it flat-out “idiotic.” 

“For decades, California has stood firm in our opposition to new offshore drilling, and nothing will change that. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect our coastline. It’s interesting that Donald’s proposal doesn’t include the waters off Mar-a-Lago,” the governor said in a statement.

In June, California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a coalition of states that sent a letter to the federal government opposing offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, arguing that there is no need to risk life and land for limited fuel supplies. 

“The United States already produces more oil and gas than any other country and exports more than it uses, and demand for gasoline has been dropping since 2019, especially on the East and West coasts,” Bonta’s office stated on Thursday.

“We are not a rich man’s playground, and the President cannot come and extract resources as he pleases,” Bonta said.
Starting on November 24, the public will have 60 days to submit comments on the draft proposal. After that, a proposed program will be issued, with an additional comment period, before a proposed final program will be sent to Congress for consideration before anything is finalized.