After Public Outcry, Feds Invite Oil and Gas Companies to Nominate Blocks of Ocean off California for Offshore Drilling

Just days after a nationwide public comment period closed on a draft federal offshore drilling plan — one that drew more than 270,000 responses — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) opened a new 30-day window.

This time, the agency is inviting oil and gas companies to nominate specific blocks of ocean off Central and Southern California for potential leasing.

For environmental advocates who had just packed Santa Barbara’s the Community Environmental Council’s Hub in downtown Santa Barbara last month in opposition to the draft five-year leasing program, the move felt abrupt.

“There were a lot of people working really hard on that first round of comments and were very disappointed to see a new deadline pop up — and a really tight deadline,” said Maggie Hall, deputy chief counsel at the Environmental Defense Center, which hosted last month’s People’s Hearing at the Hub. 

On January 26, BOEM issued two “Calls for Information and Nominations” covering roughly 36 million acres offshore Central California and 68 million acres offshore Southern California, including much of the Santa Barbara Channel.

The calls ask industry to identify specific lease blocks they would prioritize for development and invite the public to submit information on environmental conditions, archaeological resources, use conflicts, and socioeconomic impacts. The comment deadline is February 26.

The move stems from the Department of the Interior’s draft 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (2026–2031), released in November. That draft proposes 34 potential lease sales nationwide — including six in the Pacific region beginning as early as 2027.

But the five-year leasing program itself is not finalized.

According to BOEM’s published development timeline, the agency is currently in the third step of a five-step required process. The initial Request for Information was followed by the Draft Proposed Program, which closed its 60-day comment period on January 23. The next steps — including two more rounds of program proposals and a final approval — are pending.

Under the statute, the Secretary of the Interior must approve a five-year leasing schedule before offshore lease sales move forward.

Environmental advocates expected the next step to be circulation of a revised draft program reflecting public input. “We were really surprised to see — literally overnight — this new request for information for sort of a parallel process to move forward specifically in California,” Hall said.

Hall argues the sequencing is premature.

“Under federal law, the agency is supposed to do the five-year leasing program before moving forward with lease sales,” she said. “We’re going to be arguing in our letter that BOEM should not even be doing this new round of proposals and comments.”

BOEM, in its public notice, states that issuing the calls “does not constitute a decision to hold a lease sale.” The agency did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.

For residents who turned out last month — along with actor and ocean advocate Ted Danson — the question now is whether public comments make any difference.

Even if decision-makers appear unlikely to reverse course, Hall said, submitting comments serves a critical legal function. It’s a paper trail. 

“It is important from a legal perspective because if this ends up in litigation, we need to have raised issues in our comments,” she said. “It’s called exhausting your administrative remedies.”

In other words: You cannot challenge a federal action in court on grounds you failed to raise during the administrative process.

“So we always, as a practice, will raise them, even if we’re not confident that we will influence a decision-maker,” Hall said.

As a whole, the calls do not reopen existing platforms, nor do they authorize drilling. They begin groundwork for potential lease sales, which — if included in the finalized five-year program — could occur as early as 2027.

Even then, leasing is only the first stage. Companies must submit exploration plans, development plans, and undergo environmental review.

There are also state-level constraints.

Following attempts during President Trump’s first term to expand offshore leasing, California enacted legislation prohibiting new state infrastructure that would support new federal offshore drilling. That includes pipelines and onshore processing facilities.

“They can’t just build new California subsea pipelines to transport oil onshore,” Hall noted.

Whether companies would attempt to tie new leases to existing infrastructure is a possibility. 

Last month’s People’s Hearing at the Hub was organized in response to the draft five-year leasing program. Speakers invoked the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill and the 2015 Refugio disaster as cautionary history. Federal lawmakers called the draft “reckless.”

Environmental groups, such as the Surfrider Foundation, are now submitting comments opposing any lease sales in California planning areas and arguing that BOEM should not advance lease sale groundwork until the five-year program is finalized.

The administration, for its part, has framed the leasing program as a matter of energy security and economic development.

“We do have some strong protections in place,” Hall said. “But it does put the burden on us to raise all of that again because this opens a new docket before the agency.”

The February 26 comment deadline remains the public’s next opportunity to weigh in. More information, including maps, instructions for submitting comments, and links to each regional call, is available at boem.gov/California-oil-and-gas-leasing.