The Trump administration announced on Thursday new oil drilling off the California coast for the first time in decades, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand U.S. oil production.
According to the California State Lands Commission, the entirety of the California coastline has been off-limits to new oil and gas leases since 1994.
The administration’s plan proposes six offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030.
“There are a lot of potential impacts from oil drilling. Obviously, the most severe that we’ve seen in other places is a spill,” said Benjamin Ruttenberg, professor and director at the Cal Poly Center for Coastal Marine Sciences.
Ruttenberg recalled the oil spill that happened at Refugio State Beach just ten years ago.
“That released a lot of oil into the environment. Those get on birds, birds get sick, sometimes they die. It gets into the system so we have all the contaminants and the pollutants and the toxic chemicals getting into these ecosystems, getting into fish,” Ruttenberg said.
Fishing is an industry that many coastal towns, like Morro Bay, rely on.
“Usually, if there is an oil spill in an area, buyers just stop buying from that area,” said Jeremiah O'Brien, Vice President of the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen's Organization.
O'Brien has fished in the area for more than 45 years and says offshore oil drilling would interfere with the fishing industry both out at sea and back on land.
“We would definitely lose our distinction of being a fishing village and probably become an oil town, so I don’t think that’s what we’re looking for,” O'Brien said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom spoke out on X, calling the plans “Dead on arrival.”
Dead on arrival. https://t.co/ota2JEdJWS
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) November 11, 2025
Tara Gallegos, Deputy Director of Communications for the Governor's Office, says the plan is "expensive and risky" and "undermines the economic stability of coastal communities.”
The oil industry has been seeking access to new offshore areas as a way to boost U.S. energy security and jobs.
“By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
The American Petroleum Institute said that the plan was a “historic step” toward unleashing vast offshore resources. Industry groups have pointed to California’s history as an oil-producing state and say it already has infrastructure to support more production.
Meanwhile, Ruttenberg said that if the plans move forward, there would likely be a robust process to evaluate the environmental impacts.
“I believe that policy process would have a very hard time granting permits to new oil drilling operations given the potential impacts,” Ruttenberg said.
