SACRAMENTO — On Nov. 20, Trump’s Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) advanced a proposal to massively increase offshore oil and gas drilling in California, Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico. The public has until January 23, 2026 to comment on BOEM’s proposal to hold 34 new lease sales over the next five years.
The announcement came as Indigenous leaders, youth groups, and climate activists from around the globe protested the annual UN Climate Summit in Brazil, urging the leaders there to move beyond fossil fuels. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the highest-profile American at the COP in the Trump administration’s absence, blasted the announcement from the podium, calling it “dead on arrival,” and later issued a statement decrying the plan as “idiotic.”
The Trump administration recently ruled out offshore drilling in most of the southeastern U.S. after condemnation from Republican leaders, citing concerns that the inevitable oil spills would impact tourism and their economies. While BOEM is a federal agency, Gov. Newsom can still intervene to stop Trump’s attacks on California waters and communities. He can stymie attempts to build the infrastructure necessary to bring oil drilled offshore onshore, including by opposing the Sable Pipeline, a Trump-supported offshore drilling project that Newsom has been notably silent on.
Texas-based oil company Sable Offshore has racked up a litany of violations, fines, and lawsuits in their attempt to restart the failed pipeline (formerly owned by Plains All American and later by Exxon), which spilled over 400,000 gallons of oil along the Gaviota Coast in 2015. Just last week California State Parks, after receiving more than 16,000 emails from concerned citizens — as well as legal comments from the Environmental Defense Center, a law firm representing several environmental groups — denied Sable a California Environmental Quality Act exemption for the easement it needs for the part of its pipeline that goes through State Parks.
In response to these developments in the fight against offshore oil drilling in California, members of the Last Chance Alliance and other allies said:
“The ocean is sacred and must be protected at all costs. The life that salt waters support are our relatives and they deserve to live in a safe and healthy environment. Indigenous Peoples have maintained respectable, reciprocal and sustainable relationships with the waters and lands since time immemorial. Offshore oil extraction has proven time and time again to cause more harm than the profits merit. This proposed 5-year drilling plan is completely absurd and must be rejected.” – Tina Calderon, Ocean Protectors Program Director, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
“The Trump administration is taking us backwards to a world of more climate chaos and dangerous oil production. The 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill and the 2015 Plains Oil Spill demonstrated that there is no safe way to drill for oil. We applaud the Governor’s opposition to Trump’s drilling proposal and urge him to stand up to Sable’s efforts to resume oil production off the Gaviota Coast.” – Maggie Hall, Deputy Chief Counsel, Environmental Defense Center.
“For over five decades, Central Coast communities and Californians have been loud and clear: we won’t accept dangerous offshore drilling or the risky pipelines needed to support it. State Parks’ recent rejection of Sable’s shortcut was a critical step. Our coast, communities, and climate will not be sacrificed for the benefit of oil companies, especially those with notorious unsafe records, and Trump’s careless ego.” – Haley Ehler, Executive Director, Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas (CFROG)
“The Trump Administration is prioritizing a drilling program driven by spite resulting in dangerous pipelines that make all of us poorer, sicker and less safe. Now more than ever people are looking for solutions that address the soaring energy costs caused by the Trump Administration, and offshore oil drilling is a dangerous and costly proposal that won’t address the affordability crisis being felt nationwide by working families.” – Aaron McCall (Federal Advocacy Coordinator) California Environmental Voters.
“At every step of gas and oil’s development, extraction, pipelines, transportation, and use, there have been and continue to be human and ecological health threats. It’s time to recognize this and respond appropriately – no new expansions of any fossil fuel enterprises, especially off-shore drilling.” Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, California Nurses for Environmental Health and Justice
“Trump has given his Big Oil backers an early holiday present with his offshore drilling 5 year plan,” said Nicole Ghio, California Director at Food & Water Watch. “This plan reaffirms what we already know: the Trump Administration is willing to sacrifice communities to settle scores and line corporate pockets.”
“At a time when we are facing the rapid acceleration of our common climate crisis, we need to fervently speak out and resist the Trump Administration’s latest genuflection to naked corporate greed, coming on top of its recent over-turning of the Endangerment Finding and proposal to destroy the Endangered Species Act. We strongly call on Governor Newsom to do his utmost to oppose what he rightly termed an “idiotic” plan that threatens the health of our local and global communities that depend on clean water free of harmful pollution, and to focus his attention on protecting our web of life from further assaults from the rapacious fossil fuel industry.” – Robert M. Gould, MD, President, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility.
“The Trump Administration’s blind bandwagon energy agenda of “Drill Baby Drill” seeks to move forward without any comprehension of what they’re really asking for. This Administration hopes to fill their pockets with a finite energy plan at the expense of human health, climate and catastrophic environmental impacts. We hope not to see the consequences of “Spill Baby Spill” and shift our efforts to sensible and sustainable energy resources before it’s too late.” – Michael Lyons, Board President, Get Oil Out! (GOO!)
“Drilling is killing and the plan to open up all of California to new offshore oil drilling is reckless and could be disastrous. The real national energy emergency is being too slow to embrace more renewable energy and finding ways to be more energy efficient.” Bill Hickman, Sr. Regional Manager Central California, Surfrider Foundation.
“The Trump administration’s reckless plan to expand offshore drilling on California’s coast will wind back decades of progress that our communities have made in fighting pollution. Our state’s history of devastating coastal oil spills shows that offshore drilling poses unacceptable risk to California’s public and environmental health. Governor Newsom must strongly oppose any plans to revive offshore drilling, and must take steps to stop the restart of the Sable pipeline.” – Gabriela Facio, Senior Policy Strategist, Sierra Club California
Photo courtesy of Rich City Rays Kayaktivists
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LCA LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge that Sacramento is the traditional home of the Maidu, Miwok, and Nisenan people. Part of our commitment to decolonizing ourselves, our language, and our organizations is a commitment to learning and better understanding the history of Indigenous Peoples of so-called California, including the history of contact, colonization and the extraction of resources from Indigenous lands which has been part of the continuation of modern colonization.
