[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he US interior department has unveiled plans to make about 90 per cent of federal waters available for drilling, in response to a 2017 executive order from President Donald Trump.
The decision — which includes areas off the coasts of Florida, California and Alaska — was quickly condemned by environmentalists and is likely to spark broader opposition, including from some Republicans who are allies of Mr Trump.
The move is the latest snub to the environmental legacy of Barack Obama and an extension of Mr Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies, which the White House has framed as an “America first” effort to reduce US dependence on foreign oil.
The League of Conservation Voters slammed it as “beyond reckless”, saying it posed a grave threat to the climate and coastal residents whose livelihoods depend on tourism and fishing.
Announcing the decision, Ryan Zinke, secretary of the interior, told reporters: “Under President Trump we are going to have the strongest energy policy and become the strongest energy superpower. We certainly have the assets to do that.”
Florida quickly emerged as an outpost of opposition, with Rick Scott, its Republican governor, saying he opposed offshore drilling in the state and had requested a meeting with Mr Zinke to discuss his concerns about protecting its natural resources.
Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said: “The administration’s backward-looking approach puts oil and gas profits first — and will place our coastal communities and all they support at risk of the next BP-style disaster.”
Opening up oil drilling in all federal waters is a big shift, not just from the Obama era, but from all administrations since the Reagan one. The last offshore lease sale for the east coast was in 1983, and for the west coast in 1984.
Mr Zinke stressed that the Trump administration was ready to listen to the worries of Mr Scott and others and said the interior department was committed to making sure energy was produced “responsibly”.
“Certainly the states and local communities have a voice,” said Mr Zinke. “This is the beginning of opening up and saying this is what’s available. At the end of the plan, we are going to listen to the voices of communities, of our stakeholders.”
Any move to start oil and gas development from the new offshore areas would be a lengthy process given a lack of survey data and infrastructure.
The proposal, covering leases from 2019 to 2024, is to open up 25 out of 26 planning areas in the US’s outer continental shelf, leaving off-limits only a part of Alaskan waters that George W Bush signed an order to protect as president.
Tom Steyer, a billionaire political donor and climate change activist who is fiercely critical of Mr Trump, said: “The Trump administration’s energy policy ignores every fact out there except the sincere desire of fossil fuel executives to drill everywhere in the world.
“Rather than encouraging them to lose more of their shareholders’ money and endanger our health and safety, the federal government needs to promote a clean-energy economy that creates good-paying jobs and protects our air and water.”
Mr Zinke said: “We’re not going to give anyone a pass. We are going to hold corporations accountable and make sure the safety and regulatory framework is appropriate.”
Frontier exploration has fallen out of favour in the oil industry in general in recent years as a result of the fall in crude prices since 2014 and the availability of abundant onshore shale reserves that are relatively easy to access.
However, industry groups have long argued that more of the US offshore should be opened up for drilling.
Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement that the ability to develop resources in all US coastal areas was “a critical part of advancing the long-term energy security of the US” and would encourage economic growth and create thousands of jobs.
There has not been any seismic surveying to identify potential prospects for drilling in most US offshore areas. Some companies have applied for permits to begin those surveys off the Atlantic coast, and may be awarded those soon, but that is only the beginning of the process. The surveys will need to be followed by exploratory drilling, and if that is successful the reserves can take five years or longer to bring into production.
The new offshore areas will also require new infrastructure including pipelines and other facilities, putting them at a disadvantage to the Gulf of Mexico which already has a well-established industry.
The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969, the third-largest offshore after Deepwater Horizon in 2010 and Exxon Valdez in 1989, sparked a backlash against drilling in US waters. The spill, caused by a blowout at a well being drilled for Union Oil, left oil up to six inches think along 35 miles of California coastline.
The accident led to tight restrictions on drilling rights in US waters. As oil prices fell in the 1980s, and with most attempts at finding oil off the east and west coasts having been unsuccessful, the pressure for increased access faded.
