"The plan from the Interior Department is one of the president’s most significant steps yet to increase domestic fossil fuel production."

"The Trump administration on Thursday announced a plan to allow new oil and gas drilling across nearly 1.3 billion acres of U.S. coastal waters, including a remote region off Alaska in the northern Arctic where drilling has never before taken place.

The plan is one of President Trump’s most significant steps yet to increase the production of fossil fuels, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet.

It comes at the same time that dozens of countries have been calling for a phaseout of oil, gas and coal at the United Nations climate conference in Belém, Brazil, an event that the United States is skipping this year.

Under the proposal made public on Thursday, the Interior Department would hold as many as 34 sales of leases in federal waters spanning roughly 1.27 billion acres, an area more than half the size of the United States. That includes six sales of leases off the California coast that would almost certainly set up a clash with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has promised to block drilling there and has emerged as one of Mr. Trump’s chief adversaries."

Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman report for the New York Times November 20, 2025. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Trump Administration Plans To Open Pacific Coast To Oil Drilling For First Time In More Than 4 Decades" (Los Angeles Times) [3]

"Trump’s Plans to Expand Offshore Drilling Meet Bipartisan Opposition" (Inside Climate News) [4]