Pallone Condemns Trump’s Illegal Plan to Open Atlantic Coast to Offshore Drilling in 2028

LONG BRANCH, NJ - Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) today condemned reports that the Trump Administration is secretly planning to open the East and West Coasts, Arctic, and Eastern Gulf of Mexico to new offshore oil drilling, including areas that have been permanently protected under federal law.

According to leaked Interior Department documents, Trump’s five-year leasing plan would allow oil companies to conduct lease sales for devastating seismic activity and drilling starting in the Atlantic Ocean in 2028. The Arctic would go up for sale next year and the West Coast in 2027. The plan reportedly removes requirements for environmental impact reviews and cancels public hearings, which were key to businesses and residents pushing back against President Trump’s offshore drilling plans during his first term. 

“Trump’s scheme to sell off our coasts to Big Oil is illegal,” Pallone said. “The law only gives presidents the power to protect these waters, not to reopen them once they’ve been withdrawn. Courts already blocked Trump for trying this before. He’s now attempting to break the law once again, skip environmental reviews, and silence the public, all to line oil executives’ pockets.”

Pallone, a longtime opponent of offshore drilling, worked with the Biden Administration earlier this year to permanently ban oil and gas development along the East and West Coasts under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. That order made these protections permanent barring an act of Congress.

“President Biden’s action was clear and lawful,” Pallone continued. “Trump’s plan to undo it by executive fiat has no legal basis and would throw decades of coastal protection supported by Republicans and Democrats alike into chaos. If he tries it, I’ll fight him in Congress and in court. We’ve beaten Big Oil before, and we’ll do it again.”