West Coast, Florida officials resist Trump administration offshore drilling plan

By Jeremy Dillon

CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a reason why the last federal sale of oil or gas drilling leases off Florida’s Gulf coast or California’s Pacific coast was in the 1980s: The local and congressional opposition is bipartisan and intense.

And that’s why the Trump administration can expect a fight over its draft five-year plan for managing such leases, which calls for new drilling in those areas once thought to be sacrosanct.

In the aftermath of Thursday’s public reveal of the new record-breaking offshore strategy, lawmakers from both parties are urging the Interior Department to drop its plans to hold lease sales off the Florida Gulf coast and the entirety of the Pacific coast.

Fears of oil spills and interference with defense activities highlight the arguments against the administration’s plan to tap all the domestic oil and gas that it can to achieve in pursuit of U.S. dominance of global energy markets.

“As the Department of Interior works to finalize their draft plan, I urge Secretary Zinke to recognize the Florida congressional delegation’s bipartisan efforts to maintain and extend the moratorium in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, and remove this area for future planning purposes,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose sentiment echoed that of Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. — a unifying issue for two politicians likely poised for electoral battle this cycle.

The White House acknowledged Thursday that the proposal may have struck a nerve with Florida lawmakers, vowing to reach a consensus on how to move forward, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“Our goal is certainly not to cross Governor Scott,” Sanders said during Thursday’s news briefing.

The Florida opposition stems from a combination of defense and environmental concerns. From the defense angle, the worry, lawmakers say, is that it will interfere with defense and NASA-related training activities. Environmentally, the worry is beach tourism could suffer from a spill — similar to the financial hit the area took after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This proposed plan would offer two lease sales in the central and eastern Gulf regions beginning in 2023 after a congressionally directed moratorium expires in 2022. The sale would represent the first time the majority of the eastern area would be available for leasing since 1988, the department said.

The Pacific sales, the first time that region could see a lease sale since 1984, represent an even harsher and ideological opposition.

The governors of California, Oregon and Washington issued a joint statement calling the proposal “a political decision” that “flies in the face of decades of strong opposition on the part of Washington, Oregon and California — from Republicans and Democrats alike.”

That statement included a promise to “do whatever it takes to stop this reckless, short-sighted action,” the three governors said.

In Congress, leading Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Democrats echoed that opposition.

“The Trump Administration’s proposal to allow drilling off the coast in the Pacific region, despite the vocal opposition of local communities and every West Coast senator, represents an outrageous attack on our coastal economies, culture and environment,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “Washingtonians want to keep thriving on the coast, and I will fight to protect their jobs, communities and environment.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke vowed to maintain an open channel of communication, repeatedly highlighting on a media call Thursday afternoon that this draft proposal was the first step in a long process of completing the new five-year plan for 2019-2024, and that the former Montana congressman was open to hearing from all stakeholders, including members of Congress and governors.

Zinke, however, has tried to lay the groundwork for eastern Gulf drilling for most of his first year in charge of the department. He launched a working group with Defense Department officials to address issues related to interference with military exercises, and lobbied against a potential amendment to the defense authorization bill from Nelson that would have extended the moratorium on offshore leasing off Florida’s Gulf coast an extra five years in 2027.

Thursday’s reveal marked the first step in the administration’s effort to put in place a new five-year plan. Next up, the department will conduct a robust public comment period starting on Jan. 16. It will take comments nationwide, at locations to be determined. That will be followed by a “Proposed Program,” another public comment period, followed by a “Proposed Final Program.”

The department must also conduct an Environmental Impact Statement to accompany the program. A “Draft Programmatic EIS” is to be published concurrently with the Proposed Program, and a Final EIS with the Proposed Final Program, according to an Interior Department news release.