Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on Tuesday dismissed the Trump administration’s proposal to auction off oil and gas drilling rights along the West Coast as “dead on arrival.”
The governor’s press office took it a step further on social media: “Donnie [a nickname for President Donald Trump], if you’re going to open up America’s coasts, why skip your own backyard at Mar-a-Lago?”
Newsom and the Trump administration have butted heads at almost every turn, and this latest row over drilling rights is no exception. The administration’s plan proposes six offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030 along the California coast, according to a draft seen by the Washington Post. There is also an expansion of drilling into the eastern Gulf of America. In the past, drilling in these areas has been avoided due to its negative effect on the environment and tourism.
Newsom also called out the proposal on the sidelines of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, which the Trump administration chose not to attend. Newsom, who is possibly eyeing a 2028 White House bid, reiterated to reporters at the conference that the plan to drill would be “dead on arrival” in California.
Newsom spokesman Anthony Martinez faulted the Trump administration for failing to consider offshore drilling’s effect on the environment and said the governor’s office was not told about the plans ahead of time.
“Expensive and riskier offshore drilling would put our communities at risk and undermine the economic stability of our coastal economies,” Martinez said in a statement.
A catastrophic oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969 killed thousands of birds, damaged property, and harmed the commercial fishing industry. It led to the first Earth Day in the United States and gave birth to the national environmental movement. Since the spill, drilling has been prohibited in California state waters, which extend 3 miles from the shoreline.
Sable Offshore, a Texas-based oil company, is trying to reactivate three drilling rigs in federal waters off Santa Barbara that have sat idle since a 2015 oil spill. In May, it started producing oil from one of the rigs under an existing lease. Last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Sable Offshore, accusing the company of illegally discharging waste into local waterways. The company has countersued the state.
Ten oil and energy groups wrote in a joint letter this year to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that all areas with “the potential to generate jobs, new revenue, and additional production to advance America’s energy dominance should be considered for inclusion.”
The group was led by the American Petroleum Institute and defended possible new drilling sites near California.
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“Undiscovered resources could be readily produced given the array of existing infrastructure in the area, particularly in southern California,” the 16-page letter said.
An email to the Department of the Interior for comment was not returned.
