Overview
- Internal Interior Department drafts reviewed by news outlets outline potential offshore lease sales starting as early as 2026–2027, including tracts off New England, the Carolinas, California and Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.
- The draft begins a five‑year Outer Continental Shelf program that typically starts wide and is narrowed through public comment and agency review, with some marine monuments likely remaining off-limits.
- State consultation records show no East Coast state requested inclusion, eight East Coast states explicitly opposed new leasing, West Coast governors uniformly objected and Florida has not stated a position.
- Members of Congress from both parties vowed resistance and signaled legal challenges, though a few Republicans such as Sen. Thom Tillis voiced conditional support for drilling alongside offshore wind.
- The push follows Trump’s rescission of Biden‑era withdrawals that a federal court deemed unlawful, as Interior also moved this week to reopen 1.56 million acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and prepares a formal proposal in the coming weeks.