Interior Department Opens Door to Expansive Offshore Drilling Plan

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior announced the start of a planning process to develop a new five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program that could dramatically expand drilling across U.S. waters, including in the newly created “High Arctic” planning area. The 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program would replace the current five-year plan—finalized last year—which limited leasing to just three sales in the Gulf of Mexico.

Following is a reaction from Rebecca Loomis, project attorney, Nature, at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):  

“Just days before the 15th anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Department of the Interior announced plans to develop a new offshore oil and gas drilling plan amid a sea of executive orders aimed at rolling back environmental and safety measures. Selling off our ocean to the fossil fuel industry is wholly inconsistent with a livable future. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the Gulf to the High Arctic, huge swaths of our ocean could be sold off to the highest bidder—putting polluter profits above coastal communities and wildlife. The fossil fuel industry is already raking in record production and profits, and new offshore leasing makes no sense for the American public."

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).