Trump to Push for Oil Drilling off California Coast

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WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is poised to unveil a plan that would allow oil drilling off the California coast, according to people familiar with the matter, a move likely to further inflame the political feud between the president and the Democratic governor of the state, Gavin Newsom.

The announcement, which could come later this week, is also expected to include a proposal for drilling around Alaska and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the people said.

The push to expand oil production offshore, part of President Trump’s campaign pledge to “drill, baby, drill,” marks a reversal of a last-minute ban by the Biden administration on new offshore oil and gas drilling in certain federal waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A federal judge in Louisiana recently ruled that Biden’s ban was illegal.

Trump has said he can rapidly cut Americans’ energy costs by 50% or more by expanding oil and gas production, a welcome prospect for inflation-weary voters. That’s easier said than done. Many drillers, more focused on returning cash to shareholders than on growing production, don’t share Trump’s ambitions for more drilling, especially the cost-intensive offshore projects that take years to produce.

Despite those reservations, Trump is pressing ahead with his commitment to boost the oil-and-gas industry, in part by cutting support for renewable-energy and emissions-reduction initiatives. The International Energy Agency recently slashed its forecast for renewable energy capacity growth in the U.S. this decade, citing the phaseout of federal tax incentives and regulatory shifts under the Trump administration.

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The plan is “dead on arrival,” Newsom told reporters at the Conference of the Parties, otherwise known as COP, the annual climate gathering taking place in Brazil. Senior figures from the Trump administration are skipping the event. “The Trump administration has yet to formally share with us their plan, but expensive and riskier offshore drilling would put our communities at risk,” said Anthony Martinez, a spokesman for Newsom.

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In California, much of the opposition to offshore drilling stems from memories of a 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara that helped launch the environmental movement. Policymakers in the state have for years tried to spur a transition away from fossil fuels to clean-energy technologies such as solar power and electric vehicles.

Now, they are working to entice fuel-makers to stay open amid polls showing voter frustration with rising living costs and gasoline prices that are among the highest in the nation. While U.S. oil production has surged over the past two decades, California’s crude output has dropped by more than 50%.

Newsom, who is widely seen as a top potential Democratic 2028 presidential candidate, has asked state regulators to work closely with oil refiners to avoid price spikes. They have discussed ways to keep the state’s dwindling number of refineries from shrinking further. Offshore drilling, however, hasn’t been part of the state’s efforts to expand production.

Energy groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, Washington’s biggest lobby for the oil-and-gas industry, said in a June letter to the Trump administration that oil reserves off the Pacific coast could be “readily produced.” The groups blamed “political resistance to further production,” which it said has had “a chilling effect on industry interest in the area.”

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