Action Alerts

Stop Trump’s plan to expand oil drilling in our oceans

What's At Stake

The Trump administration is trying to unleash an offshore drilling plan that would jeopardize treasured coastlines nationwide  — and we have an opportunity to voice our opposition.   

The proposed plan would auction off a staggering 1.27 billion acres of public waters all across the country for oil and gas extraction. Every available offshore area of Alaska to the Gulf Coast of Florida to California’s entire shoreline could all see new oil drilling rigs. This proposal significantly increases the number of scheduled offshore oil sales, putting precious beaches and peaceful ocean areas at risk of oil spills if drilling plans go forward. 

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The U.S. is already producing more oil than any other nation in history. The oil industry has already leased millions of acres of our public waters, and the vast majority of active leases have yet to even start producing oil and gas. But the Trump administration wants to ramp up fossil fuel extraction anyway, by dramatically expanding offshore drilling in the United States — even putting areas that have long been protected on the auction block. 

This move would not benefit the American taxpayer or lower gas prices. After all, the majority of the oil the U.S. produces now gets exported. Instead, Trump’s offshore drilling plan would pad the wallets of corporate polluters while bringing irreversible harm to our communities and fast-tracking more climate disasters.

Every oil spill off our coasts, like the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the devastating 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, began with an offshore oil sale. Our communities and our environment cannot handle another one. Tell the Trump administration: No new offshore oil and gas leasing off our coasts. 

A group of men with pitchforks and hard hats clean up oil soaked straw on a beach with palm trees in the background.
Volunteer crews help clean up a beach near Santa Barbara, California on Feb. 6, 1969 following a massive oil spill from an offshore drilling platform. The spill released millions of gallons of oil into the ocean for 10 days. (UPI / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)

63 Days Remain

Delivery to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

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Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

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Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

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If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

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It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

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Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.