The Trump administration is allegedly preparing to introduce offshore oil drilling off the coast of California, a move that Governor Gavin Newsom has vehemently declared as "dead on arrival.
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The Washington Post, which managed to secure a draft map of the proposed plans, reveals that the administration is set to propose six offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030 along the states coast. Additionally, the administration is considering lease sales in the Gulf of America.
Governor Newsom expressed his strong opposition to the plan, stating, "Over our dead body. Period. Full Stop. He wants to open up the coast of California to oil drilling, but he has no interest in opening up oil drilling rigs right off the coast of Florida, not right across the street from Mar-a-Lago." He further emphasized, "Its never going to happen."
According to The Post Millennial, the specific locations on the coast that the administration is considering for oil drilling leases remain uncertain. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management reports that there are over 146 million acres of ocean in the oil and gas leasing program between Californias three ICE planning areas. Following the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, California issued a moratorium on all new leases.
Historically, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v California in 1947 that "California is not the owner of the three-mile marginal belt along its coast, and the Federal Government, rather than the State, has paramount rights in and power over that belt, an incident to which is full dominion over the resources of the soil under that water area, including oil."
This ruling led to the passage of the Submerged Lands Act of 1953 by Congress, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in the case of Alabama v Texas in 1954. The SLA granted states jurisdiction over three nautical miles from the coast, with exceptions for some states and territories, where this jurisdiction extends to nine nautical miles offshore.
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, also passed in 1953, grants the US jurisdiction over all outer continental shelf submerged lands extending beyond state coastal waters, which is the 3 nautical mile boundary set forth in the SLA.
In his final month in office, former President Joe Biden issued two Presidential Memoranda "to protect all US Outer Continental Shelf areas off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and natural gas leasing. The withdrawals have no expiration date, and prohibit all future oil and natural gas leasing in the areas withdrawn."
However, Trump revoked the ban on his first day in office. Bidens order permanently withdrew 625 million acres of ocean between all covered areas from new leasing for oil and natural gas drilling.
During Trump's first term in office, a federal court ruled that he had exceeded his authority when he authorized offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. US district court judge Sharon Gleason stated, "The wording of President Obamas 2015 and 2016 withdrawals indicates that he intended them to extend indefinitely, and therefore be revocable only by an act of Congress."
This ruling underscores the ongoing tension between state and federal jurisdiction over offshore drilling, a contentious issue that continues to shape the nation's energy policy.
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