Trump administration proposes pushing offshore oil drilling closer to Florida shores

Max Chesnes, Tampa Bay Times on Nov 20, 2025

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The Trump administration released new plans Thursday that could push offshore oil drilling closer to Florida shores in a move that many environmental critics argue will be detrimental to the state’s coastal economy and further threaten imperiled wildlife.

The plan calls for opening up a swath of the eastern Gulf of Mexico that has been traditionally off-limits to new drilling. The federal government would auction two drilling leases in that region beginning in 2029, according to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management proposal.

The region being opened for drilling leases, which the agency is calling “Program Area B,” is a newly proposed boundary that brushes up on a buffer 100 miles offshore of Florida’s tourist-heavy beaches. Environmental advocacy groups say any spilled oil in that region could be easily swept in the Gulf stream current and dumped onto the state’s shores.

The boundary extends south from a point approximately 25 miles west of Tallahassee, according to the proposal.

It’s a plan that is certain to set off a firestorm of pushback from Floridians, and their elected representatives across the political spectrum, who are still reeling over the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill and its impacts to the state’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry.

“This draft plan is an oil spill nightmare,” said Joseph Gordon, a campaign director for the conservation nonprofit Oceana. “This dangerous proposal to still sell off millions of acres of our oceans is a betrayal of the bipartisan voices — including U.S. lawmakers, business leaders, and the people who live along the coasts — who oppose more offshore drilling."

Gordon called on U.S. Congressional leaders, and Florida’s state elected officials, to demand the Trump administration goes back to the drawing board.

The petroleum industry is praising the new five-year leasing plan. In a statement, president of the American Petroleum Institute Mike Sommers said the proposal was a “historic step toward unleashing our nation’s vast offshore resources.”

Beyond the tourism concerns, wildlife advocacy groups worry that expanding oil drilling further east in the gulf will directly impede the habitat of the Rice’s whale, an endangered species with fewer than 100 individuals estimated remaining in the wild. The population saw a sharp decline in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill 15 years ago.

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