On January 20, 2025, the President signed Executive Order 14154, titled “Unleashing American Energy.”[1] The order set out as “the Policy of the United States” “to encourage energy exploration and production on Federal lands and waters, including on the Outer Continental Shelf, in order to meet the needs of our citizens and solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future.”[2] In service of that end, the Secretary of the Interior issued Secretary’s Order No. 3445 directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to create a new plan for the sale of oil and gas leases in United States waters along the Outer Continental Shelf.[3] Where the plan approved by the Biden Administration (the 10th National Program) would have only allowed for the sale of three offshore oil and gas leases, BOEM’s first proposed plan for the 11th National Program was more expansive and has been hotly contested.[4] Public comment on BOEM’s first proposed plan, which would have allowed for the sale of 34 lease sales along the coast of California, in the waters surrounding Alaska, and a substantial portion of the Gulf of Mexico, concluded on January 23, 2026, with over 300,000 comments.[5] Debate regarding the plan’s proposed expansion of offshore oil and gas extraction has extended beyond administrative procedure.

Despite the crucial position of offshore oil drilling in the Trump Administration’s energy independence strategy, all thirty members of Florida’s Congressional delegation, including Republicans, signed onto a memorandum opposing the sale of oil leases in the Gulf that threatened Florida’s coastline.[6] In contrast, several of California’s Republican Representatives have expressed support for the expansion of drilling off the coast of California, and Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz similarly supported drilling off the Texas Gulf Coast.[7]

A number of environmental groups, local government bodies, and business owners have joined Florida’s Congressional delegation in opposition to expanding offshore oil drilling.[8] In Healthy Gulf v. Burgum, several environmental groups brought a NEPA challenge to a lease sale of over 70 million acres in the Gulf under BOEM’s 2017-2022 Oil and Gas Leasing Program.[9] The D.C. District Court sustained the environmental groups’ challenge, finding that BOEM failed to adequately consider greenhouse gas emissions, potential impact to the habitat of Rice’s whale (a whale species hovering on the brink of extinction), and impact to low-income and minority communities.[10] While the lease sale challenged in Healthy Gulf predates the lease plan proposal currently under consideration, BOEM’s response to the D.D.C.’s opinion is likely to affect NEPA challenges to the 11th National Program.[11] On February 25, 2026, BOEM reaffirmed the lease sales that the D.D.C. upended in Healthy Gulf, citing a new environmental impact statement that it claims adequately addresses the court’s concerns by considering oil drilling’s potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, recreation, and wildlife habitat in the Gulf.[12] Going forward, BOEM may attempt to use this environmental impact assessment to frustrate similar NEPA challenges to upcoming lease sales in the areas of the Gulf mandated by the 11th National Program.[13]

The 11th National Program is still in preliminary notice and comment phases, but as it advances, it is likely to encounter more challenges. The concerns expressed by the court in Healthy Gulf are mirrored by public opposition to BOEM’s current plan. Recently, the Center for Biological Diversity estimated that the 11th National Program could result in up to 4,232 oil spills, totaling 12.1 million gallons and threatening many Gulf species, particularly Rice’s whale.[14] Public concern regarding oil spills is still evident; for instance, the 2018 amendment to Florida’s Constitution banning offshore drilling in state waters, eight years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, was approved by 68% of voters.[15]

Thus, offshore oil drilling implicates a wide array of competing environmental and economic interests, and the opposition to expanding oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf sits at the intersection of those interests.

 

 

[1] Exec. Order No. 14154, 90 Fed. Reg. 8353 (Jan. 20, 2025).

[2] Id.

[3] Press Release, Dep’t of the Interior, Interior Launches Expansive 11th National Offshore Leasing Program to Advance U.S. Energy Dominance (Nov. 20, 2025), https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-launches-expansive-11th-national-offshore-leasing-program-advance-us-energy [https://perma.cc/D22D-HRX6]; Sec’y Order 3445, Dept. of Interior (Nov. 14, 2025).

[4] Sec’y Order 3445, Dept. of Interior (Nov. 14, 2025).

[5] Bureau of Ocean Energy Mgmt., National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program, https://www.boem.gov/oil-gas-energy/national-program/national-ocs-oil-and-gas-leasing-program [https://perma.cc/4ULS-B6TA] (last visited Mar. 14, 2026).

[6] Letter from the Florida Congressional Delegation to Pres. Trump (Dec. 4, 2025), [https://perma.cc/8EQA-HY5Q].

[7] Timothy Cama, California Republicans Aren’t Fighting Trump’s Offshore Drilling Plan, E&E NEWS (Jan. 7, 2026), https://www.eenews.net/articles/california-republicans-arent-fighting-trumps-offshore-drilling-plan-2/ [https://perma.cc/TU45-7RZQ]; Press Release, Sen. Cruz, Rep. Arrington Introduce Legislation to Repeal Biden’s Offshore Drilling Ban (Jan. 17, 2025).

[8] See, e.g., Jared Williams, Destin Joins Okaloosa in Opposing Eastern Gulf Oil Drilling Near Military Training Range, Get the Coast (Dec. 4, 2025), https://www.getthecoast.com/destin-joins-okaloosa-in-opposing-eastern-gulf-oil-drilling-near-military-training-range/ [https://perma.cc/JB5W-VQJS].

[9] See Healthy Gulf v. Burgum, 775 F.Supp.3d 455, 466 (D.D.C. 2025).

[10] See Id. at 479-90.

[11] See Sarah Dicharry, BOEM Issues Record of Decision Reaffirming Gulf of America Lease Sales 259 and 261, The Nat’l Law Rev. (Mar. 2, 2026), https://natlawreview.com/article/boem-issues-record-decision-reaffirming-gulf-america-lease-sales-259-and-261 [https://perma.cc/7NG4-SE9].

[12] Bureau of Ocean Energy Mgmt., Record of Decision to Reaffirm Decisions for Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sales 259 and 261 at 1-4; Bureau of Ocean Energy Mgmt., Gulf of America Regional OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales and Post-Lease Activities – Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Aug. 2025).

[13] See Dicharry, supra note 11.

[14] Analysis: Trump Offshore Drilling Plan Could Generate 4,000+ Oil Spills, Center for Biological Diversity (Jan. 6, 2026), https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/analysis-trump-offshore-drilling-plan-could-generate-4000-oil-spills-2026-01-06/ [https://perma.cc/6DUZ-WMA5].

[15] Fla. Const. art. II § 7; Florida Voters Pass Constitutional Amendment Banning Oil, Gas Drilling in State Waters, Center for Biological Diversity (Nov. 6, 2018), https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/florida-offshore-drilling-11-06-2018.php [https://perma.cc/Q37E-AS9T].