The Trump administration is proposing to open federal waters off the entire California coast to new oil drilling, which could begin as soon as 2027 in both central and Southern California waters.
This would mark the first new offshore drilling approved in decades. California hasn't approved new offshore drilling since the late 1960s, following the devastating 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill that released millions of gallons of oil into the channel and took more than a month to clean up.
Environmental groups like the Surfrider Foundation are raising concerns about the proposal. They argue that every step of the drilling process, from exploration to routine operations, could pollute California's coast.
Even without new drilling, California has experienced two significant oil spills in the last decade. In both cases, Californians reported finding tar balls washing onto beaches.
"Look at the delays we had both off Santa Barbara and off Orange County. The first thing you need to do when the oil starts gushing into the ocean, you need to shut the spigot off, and in both cases the operators failed to do that. So again, this is in the last decade, and the track record is very poor," said a Surfrider Foundation representative.
County leaders are pushing back against the proposal to add new rigs in California waters. San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer was joined by business owners and Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, who say the risk is not worth it.
"If Donald Trump wants to auction off our coastline to the highest bidder, he's gonna have to go through all of us and through the hundreds and hundreds of people now signing our petition opposing offshore oil drilling," Lawson-Remer said.
A 60-day public comment period is open until Jan. 23 for the public to weigh in on the proposal.
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