Draft proposal seeks six California lease sales despite clear legal limits and decades of bipartisan coastal protections

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  dead seabirds killed by the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska in 1989.  Source.

November 20, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – The Trump administration today released its draft 2027 to 2032 Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing plan, the most aggressive push in decades to open all of the California coast to oil and gas drilling. The proposal includes six lease sales off  Southern California between 2027 and 2030, the first attempt to drill in these waters in more than 40 years.