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CALIFORNIA: California lawmakers push back against offshore oil drilling

January 22, 2026 — Weeks after California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis spoke out against federal efforts to expand offshore oil drilling, state lawmakers told The Center Square that increased drilling is deeply unpopular among coastal residents.

Opponents warn against the environmental costs.

But supporters say technology has made drilling safer. They also note offshore drilling could boost America’s energy independence and lower gas prices in California, which typically has the highest in the U.S.

Legislators’ comments opposing the drilling come after the announcement in November 2025 that the U.S. Department of the Interior would expand oil and gas drilling leases not just off the Pacific Coast in areas such as Santa Barbara, but other sites on the nation’s outer continental shelf.

“We have a deep, visceral experience that is seared into the community’s consciousness about the risks of offshore oil development,” Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, told The Center Square. “We are adamantly opposed to the leasing. There’s been a bipartisan consensus for 40 years that we want to wind down offshore oil development, not expand it.”

According to a November 2025 order from the U.S. secretary of the interior, the program to increase oil drilling off American coastlines is meant to increase “national energy resilience” by increasing the number of oil drilling leases. That order mandated that four lease sales were planned for the coming months – one in December 2025, two in March 2026 and one in August 2026.

The first sale was held in December in New Orleans, attracting 219 bids from 26 companies that would include the increased oil production of 1.02 million acres in the Gulf of America, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. The last time oil drilling leases were sold in the Gulf of America, formerly the Gulf of Mexico, was in 2023.

Additional lease sales are planned for the Gulf of America and Cook Inlet in Alaska, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Despite no lease sales immediately planned off the coast of California, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to start auctioning six total oil drilling leases off the coast of California starting in 2027, according to a proposed program report from the bureau released in November. Three lease sales are planned in 2027 off the coast of Southern California, another two starting in 2027 off the coast of Central California and one off the coast of Northern California in 2029, the report states.

Trump’s offshore wind blockade suffers a third legal blow

January 20, 2026 — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Interior Department’s order halting construction of an offshore wind project off the coast of Virginia, marking the third time in a week that courts have stepped in to reverse the Trump administration’s anti-wind policies.

Judge Jamar Walker said in a hearing Friday before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that the agency failed to provide sufficient reasoning for freezing work on Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. The Biden-appointed judge issued a preliminary injunction from the bench clearing the way for construction to restart while litigation remains ongoing.

The Dec. 22 order from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management blocked construction on five offshore wind projects for 90 days along the Eastern Seaboard, citing emerging national security concerns. Along with Dominion Energy’s project, the order halted ongoing work on Empire Wind 1, Sunrise Wind, Revolution Wind and Vineyard Wind 1.

Read the full article at E&E News

Burgum ordered Revolution Wind’s August halt, documents show

January 16, 2026 — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum personally ordered the halt of an offshore wind project off of New England in August, but federal officials later downplayed his participation, according to emails obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News.

Such direct involvement from a political appointee in an individual project is unusual, analysts and industry experts say. The sequence of events, shown in documents released to E&E News in a public records request, hint at the extent to which some of the most senior officials in the Trump administration are involved in the president’s anti-wind agenda.

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind in August. The $6.2 billion offshore wind project is expected to generate enough power for 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Read the full article at E&E News

CALIFORNIA: Central Coast communities oppose federal offshore drilling proposal

January 13, 2026 — Community leaders and environmental groups in California are pushing back against a federal proposal that could bring new offshore oil and gas drilling to the California coast, raising concerns about the impact on local economies and marine life and the risk of future spills.

The Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released a proposal for six potential offshore lease sales over the next five years, including federal waters off the Central Coast.

Ashley Blacow-Draeger said, “When we drill, we spill. We know that oil spills contaminate fisheries, they close beaches, they kill wildlife, and they impact people who are reliant on healthy oceans.”

Local leaders have highlighted the real risks associated with offshore drilling, referencing resolutions passed by cities across Monterey and Santa Cruz counties opposing such activities, and pointing to the long-term damages from the Santa Barbara oil spill.

Read the full article at KSBW

 

Trump cites national security risk to defend wind freeze in court

January 12, 2026 — The Interior Department is defending its decision to halt construction of the Revolution Wind project off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut over alleged national security concerns.

The agency is facing a flurry of legal challenges after Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ordered a 90-day pause on construction for the New England energy farm, along with four other offshore wind projects along the Eastern Seaboard. Those projects are Empire Wind 1, Sunrise Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind and Vineyard Wind 1.

The agency decided the Dec. 22 order was necessary after the Department of Defense (renamed the Department of War by President Donald Trump) issued a classified report late last year about the security risks of offshore wind, Justice Department attorneys said in a Thursday brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the full article at E&E News

Feds plan to meet face-to-face on mining

January 12, 2026 — Federal officials from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of the Interior, are planning to visit Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in February to meet face-to-face with island residents and take public comments on deep-sea mining near the Mariana Trench.

Lester Carlson, director of the Bureau of Budget and Management Research, confirmed Monday that BOEM has requested meetings on Feb. 25 for Guam and Feb. 26-27 in the CNMI, though neither governor has finalized those dates.

“I think BOEM is set to visit,” Carlson told The Guam Daily Post. “It all depends on Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s and Gov. David Apatang’s availability.”

Both governors are scheduled to attend National Governors Association meetings in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 19-21, the week before the proposed visit.

“BOEM is a division of the Department of the Interior, so they’re well aware of the scheduling,” Carlson said. “All things being equal, both governors, if they return relatively quick from D.C., could be available for meetings that are requested the following week, but they have not confirmed yet.”

Read the full article at the Guam Daily Post

Virginia offshore wind developer sues over Trump administration order halting projects

December 29, 2025 — The developers of a Virginia offshore wind project are asking a federal judge to block a Trump administration order that halted construction of their project, along with four others, over national security concerns.

Dominion Energy Virginia said in its lawsuit filed late Tuesday that the government’s order is “arbitrary and capricious” and unconstitutional. The Richmond-based company is developing Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, a project it says is essential to meet dramatically growing energy needs driven by dozens of new data centers.

The Interior Department did not detail the security concerns in blocking the five projects on Monday. In a letter to project developers, Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management set a 90-day period — and possibly longer — “to determine whether the national security threats posed by this project can be adequately mitigated.”

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Trump order halts offshore wind projects for at least 90 days

December 26, 2025 — The Trump administration has directed five large-scale wind projects under construction off the East Coast to suspend their activities for at least 90 days, according to letters from the Interior Department obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, which provide new details on the government’s move to pause the offshore ventures.

During the pause, the Interior Department will coordinate with project developers “to determine whether the national security threats posed by this project can be adequately mitigated,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said in a letter to project developers. The 90-day period can be extended if necessary, the ocean management agency said.

The administration announced Monday it was suspending the offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not indicate whether the pause was limited, nor did it reveal specifics about the national security concerns.

It was the latest step by the Trump administration to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful. The move angered local officials who have supported the projects and posed a new threat to offshore wind development that has faced increasing pressures since Trump took office.

Read the full article at PBS News

Court Denies Motion for Injunction of BOEM’s Review of Maryland COP

December 17, 2025 — A federal court judge in Maryland has denied a request by offshore wind developer US Wind for a preliminary injunction against the federal government in its ongoing fight to save its planned offshore wind project off Ocean City, Maryland. It is the latest twist in the ongoing court battle over Maryland’s first offshore wind project and the broader battle against the Trump administration’s efforts to derail the industry and revoke existing permits.

US Wind, which is a partnership between investment firm Apollo Global Management and Italy’s Renexia, is planning a large wind farm off the Maryland coast that would include 114 wind turbines. The company completed its federal-level reviews, receiving approval of its Construction and Operation Plan in December 2024, but has faced local opposition and the new administration’s declared goal to end offshore wind energy.

The company has found itself caught up in multiple legal battles, including a jurisdictional dispute between the federal and state environmental protection authorities. Ocean City, Maryland, has also sued the federal government, challenging the approval of the wind farm’s plans.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Deep-sea mining interests raise alarms among Mariana Trench communities

December 11, 2025 — U.S.-led plans to mine the deep seabed have gained momentum since President Donald Trump signed an executive order that called for the industry’s rapid formation to bolster U.S. national security. One recent development emerged in November, when U.S. agency Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) signaled its intent to open offshore areas of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) — an area known to harbor mineral-rich seamounts, hydrothermal vents and abyssal plains — to deep-sea mineral exploration and development.

On Nov. 12, BOEM issued a request for information, or RFI, which indicated its interest in offering mineral rights to companies through lease agreements along the CNMI’s outer continental shelf, a process that could eventually allow commercial mining to proceed on CNMI’s deep seabed. The publication of the RFI included the opening of a 30-day public comment period.

Yet several government officials in both the CNMI and the neighboring island nation of Guam — both of which are U.S. territories that could be directly affected by deep-sea mining in the region — have raised concerns about the brief window they’ve been given to respond to BOEM’s proposal. Some local residents are also pushing back against the proposal, arguing that deep-sea mining would irreversibly damage the marine environment, while disregarding the community’s deep cultural connection to the ocean. If seabed mining does go ahead in the region, critics say it would become another form of colonial exploitation in a region already heavily used by the United States for commercial and military purposes, at the expense of local communities.

Read the full article at Mongabay