Trump's Offshore Drilling Plan—What You Need to Know
A new federal plan would expose 90 percent of coastal waters to oil drilling efforts. Here's what that means.
On January 4, the Trump administration unveiled a five-year blueprint to expand offshore drilling and gas leasing in nearly all U.S. waters. The plan, which would span 2019 to 2024, would also let the government auction off permanently protected areas. (Read a running list of how the Trump administration is changing the environment.)
"We want to grow our nation's offshore energy industry, instead of slowly surrendering it to foreign shores," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says in a statement.
The proposed plan would expand offshore drilling to more than 90 percent of waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Arctic. According to the Interior Department, more than 3 billion barrels of oil and 30 trillion cubic feet of
