Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jared Huffman Representing the 2nd District of California
Lead sponsors of West Coast Ocean Protection Act and Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act condemn efforts that would devastate coastal communities
October 30, 2025
Washington, D.C. — Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02) and House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.-06), along with U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), led over 100 lawmakers in demanding President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum immediately cease any plans to open new offshore oil and gas leases in U.S. federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf. The lawmakers warned that opening these untouched coastlines to new offshore drilling would devastate coastal economies, jeopardize our national security, ravage coastal ecosystems, and put millions of Americans’ health and safety at risk, hurting people across the political spectrum.
By reversing long-standing legal protections for vulnerable coastal waters, new offshore leases would cause significant environmental damage to communities already reeling from natural disasters and recent oil spills. Oil spills not only cause irreparable environmental damage, but also suppress the value of coastal homes, harm tourism economies, and weaken coastal infrastructure. Already, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forced to respond to over 150 oil and chemical spills each year. One disastrous spill can cost taxpayers billions in lost revenue, cleanup costs, and ecosystem restoration.
These threats of expanded oil drilling come as the Administration already dismantled NOAA’s oil spill prevention and response programs, as almost 30 percent of the team in charge of addressing oil spills has been laid off or took early retirement. The Emergency Response Division team and the oil spill program are slated to lose half their fundingfrom the Administration’s proposed FY 2026 budget.
“This is a matter of national consequence for coastal communities across the country, regardless of political affiliation. It puts our economies, national security, and our most vulnerable ecosystems at severe risk,” wrote the lawmakers. “… Expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines.”
“The United States already leads the world in oil and gas production. The industry currently holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering over 12 million acres of federal waters —yet fewer than 500 of those leases are actively producing oil and gas,” continued the lawmakers. “There is no justification for opening vast swaths of our oceans to leasing when existing leases remain largely unused, while imposing mounting environmental and economic costs on coastal communities.”
Additionally, the Department of Defense (DOD) previously warned that oil and gas leases in portions of the Eastern Gulf would impact areas critical to our military readiness, including for military training and testing opportunities and assets. DOD has also signaled that parts of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Planning Areas are “not compatible with oil and gas activities and infrastructure.”
The lawmakers condemned the potential expansion of offshore drilling while the Administration simultaneously curtails offshore wind and clean energy development. This year, the Trump Administration has withdrawn all outer continental offshore wind leases, rescinded all designated Wind Energy Areas, and eliminated $679 million in offshore-wind-related port infrastructure funding, including over $426 million for Humboldt Bay offshore wind infrastructure.
Specifically, the lawmakers demanded that President Trump and Secretary Burgum:
- Halt any steps toward new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Atlantic, Pacific, off the coast the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts of Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf;
- Limit offshore drilling, consistent with previous statutory and agency protections;
- Prioritize coastal resilience, including expanded storm-surge and flood protection, restoration of wetlands and sand dunes, and early-warning systems, so that communities in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, Alaska, and beyond are better protected; and
- Restore a credible pathway for offshore wind and other clean-energy projects by rescinding the OCS wind-leasing withdrawal and rescinded WEAs, enabling science-based projects that support jobs and coastal economies.
“Our coastal communities, fishermen, small business owners, Tribal Nations, tourism operators, and families cannot be sacrificed in the name of short-term drilling booms,” concluded the lawmakers. “Opening new offshore lease areas while cancelling clean energy progress is potentially illegal, a failure of leadership, and a dereliction of the public trust.”
In addition to Huffman, Pallone, Padilla, and Booker, the letter is also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11) and U.S. Representatives Gabe Amo (D-R.I.-01), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.-03), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.-44), Wesley Bell (D-Mo.-01), Donald Beyer (D-Va.-08), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.-01), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.-05), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), André Carson (D-Ind.-07), Ed Case (D-Hawaii-01), Sean Casten (D-Ill.-06), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.-14), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.-20), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.-05), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.-09), Herbert Conaway (D-N.J.-03), Danny Davis (D-Ill.-07), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.-01), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.-01), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.-03), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.-06), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.-03), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.-04), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Jesús G. “Chuy” García (D-Ill.-04), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42), Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.-10), Jim Himes (D-Conn.-04), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Henry “Hank” Johnson (D-Ga.-04), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.-02), George Latimer (D-N.Y.-16), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.-16), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Sarah McBride (D-Del.-AL), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.-10), Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.-04), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.-04), James McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.-08), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.-12), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.-02), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.-01), Eleanor Norton (D-D.C.-AL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.-14), Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.-02), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Nellie Pou (D-N.J.-09), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.-05), Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), Emily Randall (D-Wash.-06), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.-02), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.-06), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.-05), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.-09), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.-08), Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.-03), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Adam Smith (D-Wash.-09), Darren Soto (D-Fla.-09), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.-03), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.-02), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.-12), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii-02), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.-03), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.-07), James Walkinshaw (D-Va.-11), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24) also signed the letter.
Environmental advocates including Food & Water Watch, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Surfrider Foundation, Earthjustice, and Alaska Wilderness League supported the letter.
“These reckless offshore drilling plans would put coastal communities and workers directly in harm’s way, risking new oil spills, worsening climate disasters, and erasing decades of progress toward clean energy,” said Jim Walsh, Policy Director for Food & Water Watch. “We cannot keep sacrificing people and places for fossil fuel profits. Protecting our coasts isn’t just sound policy, it’s a moral obligation necessary for a livable future.”
“Offshore drilling is a threat to the lifeblood of our coastal communities,” said Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon. “The people who live and work along our coasts depend on healthy oceans for their economic security and way of life. Oceana commends Sen. Padilla, Sen. Booker, Rep. Huffman, Rep. Pallone, and the many lawmakers across the country who are working to protect our coasts from more drilling and spilling. There’s too much at stake to gamble our future on deadly oil spills that can last for generations to come.”
“Selling off our ocean to the fossil fuel industry is wholly inconsistent with a livable future,” said Taryn Kiekow Heimer, Director, Ocean Energy at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “Despite the urgency of ramping down fossil fuel production to address the climate and biodiversity crises, Interior is putting forth an outrageous proposal to offer up our coastal waters from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the Gulf to the High Arctic to Big Oil. It’s inconceivable we would put polluter profits above coastal communities and wildlife.”
“The federal administration’s offshore oil drilling plan will damage coastlines and communities, while threatening coastal recreation and tourism industries that contribute billions of dollars to our nation’s economy,” said Pete Stauffer, ocean protection manager of the Surfrider Foundation. “New drilling will also increase the likelihood of yet another destructive oil spill off our coasts.”
“The Trump administration should abandon its misguided plan to force offshore drilling on coastal communities that have made it clear they don’t want it,” said Laura M. Esquivel, Senior Legislative Representative, Earthjustice. “This reckless proposal threatens the way of life, health, and livelihoods of millions of people along America’s coastlines—regardless of political affiliation. The last thing Americans need is yet another threat to their wellbeing and economic security. Voters will remember who tried to bring this deeply unpopular plan to their communities.”
“Alaska Wilderness League stands firmly against this Administration’s push for offshore drilling in Alaska’s coastal waters and the Arctic Ocean,” said Andy Moderow, Senior Director of Policy at Alaska Wilderness League. “For years, industry has shown no interest in drilling Arctic waters, and an oil spill in these fragile waters would be a global catastrophe with irreversible consequences for the coastal communities, marine wildlife, and the climate.”
On Earth Day, Huffman, Pallone, Padilla, Booker, and Reed announced a pair of bills to permanently protect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the dangers of fossil fuel drilling. Padilla and Huffman’s West Coast Ocean Protection Act would permanently prohibit new oil and gas leases for offshore drilling off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, while Booker, Reed, and Pallone’s Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism (COAST) Anti-Drilling Act would permanently prohibit the U.S. Department of the Interior from issuing leases for the exploration, development, or production of oil and gas in the North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida Planning Areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Mr. President and Secretary Burgum:
We write to express our strongest opposition to any effort to open new offshore oil and gas leasing in federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf. This is a matter of national consequence for coastal communities across the country, regardless of political affiliation. It puts our economies, national security, and our most vulnerable ecosystems at severe risk. These reported proposals would reverse long-standing protections that shield sensitive coastal waters from new drilling, including withdrawals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, statutory moratoria, and agency restrictions.
Expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines. Many of these communities are already reeling from compounded disasters: hurricanes, sea-level rise, storm surge, and the lingering legacy of oil-spill disasters. Since 1980, hurricanes alone have generated well over $1.5 trillion in damage in the United States. Expanding offshore leasing increases the likelihood that future storms, oil spills, or other disasters will impose even greater burdens on front-line coastal communities.
In addition to storms, the threat of oil spills remains real and costly. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard reported a spill of more than 30,000 gallons of “oily-watery mixture” off Louisiana’s coast earlier this year. Oil spill damage threatens not just the environment, but the value of coastal homes, the health of tourism economies, and the resilience of coastal infrastructure. A single catastrophic spill could cost taxpayers, states, and local communities tens of billions of dollars in cleanup costs, lost revenue, and degraded ecosystems. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) already responds to over 150 oil and chemical spills in U.S. waters every year. Under the administration’s proposed plan, every part of the United States’ coastline would be at risk of disaster.
These risks are magnified by the administration’s dismantling of NOAA and its oil spill prevention and response programs. Nearly 30 percent of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration Emergency Response Division staff—the team that addresses oil spills—were already laid off or took early retirement as part of the administration’s ongoing reductions in force. The administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would cut in half funding for the oil spill program and the Emergency Response Division.
Under the administration’s reported plans, harmful seismic testing could take place across every coast. NOAA Fisheries recently concluded that oil and gas activities like seismic exploration in the Gulf of Mexico could drive the endangered Rice’s whale—of which only a few dozen individuals remain—to extinction. Seismic testing for oil and gas disrupts communication, navigation, and breeding among whales, fish, and other marine species, inflicting irreversible harm on ocean ecosystems.
The administration’s reported plans would also open up oil and gas leasing in areas the Department of Defense (DOD) has previously stated would be problematic for military readiness. Leaked documents report that the administration will conduct leasing in parts of the Eastern Gulf, which includes irreplaceable military training and testing opportunities and assets. The DOD has similarly labeled portions of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Planning Areas “not compatible with oil and gas activities and infrastructure.”
The United States already leads the world in oil and gas production. The industry currently holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering over 12 million acres of federal waters —yet fewer than 500 of those leases are actively producing oil and gas. There is no justification for opening vast swaths of our oceans to leasing when existing leases remain largely unused, while imposing mounting environmental and economic costs on coastal communities.
While the administration prepares to expand offshore drilling, it is simultaneously undermining offshore wind and clean energy development, thereby reducing our ability to expand energy supplies and build resilient coastal economies. On January 20, 2025, the President issued a memorandum withdrawing all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing, pending review. On July 30, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) rescinded all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs). The Department of the Interior has issued directives curbing so-called “preferential treatment” for wind and solar, and the U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew $679 million in offshore-wind-related port infrastructure funding. These actions raise electricity costs for families, make our coastlines less safe, and our communities more vulnerable.
We therefore urge your administration to take the following actions to reverse course immediately:
1. Halt any steps toward new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Atlantic, Pacific, off the coast the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts of Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf;
2. Limit offshore drilling, consistent with previous statutory and agency protections;
3. Prioritize coastal resilience, including expanded storm-surge and flood protection, restoration of wetlands and sand dunes, and early-warning systems, so that communities in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, Alaska, and beyond are better protected; and
4. Restore a credible pathway for offshore wind and other clean-energy projects by rescinding the OCS wind-leasing withdrawal and rescinded WEAs, enabling science-based projects that support jobs and coastal economies.
Protecting our waters from offshore drilling is broadly supported by the American public. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters oppose new offshore drilling, and hundreds of municipalities along the Atlantic, Pacific, the eastern Gulf, and these regions of Alaska have passed formal resolutions against its expansion. These communities have made clear that safeguarding their coastal economies, fisheries, and way of life must take precedence over short-term fossil fuel interests.
Our coastal communities, fishermen, small business owners, Tribal Nations, tourism operators, and families cannot be sacrificed in the name of short-term drilling booms. Opening new offshore lease areas while cancelling clean energy progress is potentially illegal, a failure of leadership, and a dereliction of the public trust.
We look forward to your prompt response detailing what specific steps the Administration will take to halt this course of action and recommit to safeguarding our nation’s shores, economy, and shared future.
Sincerely,
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