Trump wants West Coast oil drilling. Does anyone else?

Santa Barbara that spewed an estimated 100,000 barrels of crude into the water and helped jump-start the modern environmental movement.

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OIL PLATFORMS off Santa Barbara have shut down because of local opposition and tough state rules.

(AL SEIB Los Angeles Times)

The years that followed saw a string of actions to protect the Outer Continental Shelf from oil and gas development, including bipartisan actions from the state, Congress and presidents including George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama. In January, President Biden signed an executive order protecting more than 625 million acres of the U.S. ocean from offshore drilling, which Trump repealed on his first day back in office.

Oil companies have expressed some interest in new offshore leases. The American Petroleum Institute and other leading oil and gas trade groups encouraged the Trump administration in a June letter to evaluate and consider all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas drilling, noting that “continuous exploration and drilling will be needed” to ensure long-term energy security and meet U.S. energy demands into 2050.

But the opposition from California could be strong. The state has set ambitious climate goals, including reaching 100% carbon neutrality by 2045.

"Nobody really wants offshore oil, except for maybe Texas and Louisiana," said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy industry analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. "In my mind, this is at least in part politically motivated rather than substantively motivated."