San Diego County comes out against Trump's offshore drilling plans in California

Rob Nikolewski, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Dec 9, 2025

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SAN DIEGO — The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted a resolution vowing to fight efforts by the Trump administration to expand offshore oil and gas drilling more than three miles off the coast of California.

The measure, approved on a 4-1 vote, was introduced by board chair Terra Lawson-Remer and chair pro tem Paloma Aguirre.

“No one in California wants this,” Aguirre said during a news conference on the eve of the vote, “and I mean no one.”

A little more than two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a five-year plan that included proposals for six offshore leases in federal waters off the coast of California. The southernmost potential lease site would extend from San Diego to San Luis Obispo.

If enacted, the move would mark the first new oil and gas leases in federal waters off the coast of California since 1984.

The draft map also includes expanding offshore drilling in Alaska and along the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, renamed the Gulf of America by President Donald Trump via executive order earlier this year.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed the proposal as part of the Trump administration’s larger goals for “unleashing American energy.” Before any lease sales are finalized, the Interior Department will host a 60-day comment period for the public to weigh in.

Lawson-Remer and Aguirre listed a host of concerns, including the risk of oil spills that could wreak environmental damage reminiscent of the 1969 blowout that spewed as much as 100,000 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Channel and killed about 3,500 sea birds and marine animals such as dolphins and sea lions.

“Our coastline is not for sale,” Lawson-Remer said.

The resolution expresses the county’s support for a bill on Capitol Hill that would prevent new leasing for the exploration, development or production of oil or natural gas in federal waters along the Southern California coast, from San Diego to the northern border of San Luis Obispo County.

The legislation, HR 2862, was introduced earlier this year by Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano.

The measure also directs the county’s chief administrative officer to work with a host of political agencies and offices across the state — including the governor and attorney general — to “coordinate the unified, regional response needed to keep new oil drilling out” of coastal waters and the San Diego area.

The resolution “may seem something small and symbolic,” Aguirre said, “but collectively it’s a very powerful tool that we have to push back on this proposal,” especially if counties and city councils across the state follow suit.

District 2 Supervisor Joel Anderson cast the one vote in opposition to the resolution but did not make any comments during Tuesday’s hearing.

State jurisdiction of waters in California extends for the first three nautical miles from shore, but the federal government has control beyond that distance.

While California officials could not in theory prohibit new federal offshore leases, state and local governments could make it difficult for prospective drillers to bring the oil ashore by complicating the permitting process or employing other strategies.

“We can make it very clear that it will be wildly unprofitable and a complete economic failure for (oil companies) to pursue building offshore oil rigs, even if Trump does unilaterally open up waters for drilling,” Lawson-Remer said.

There are already 23 oil and gas production facilities in federal waters off the coast of California, according to the State Lands Commission, although some of them are no longer profitable to maintain. Twenty-two of those produce oil and gas, while the other is a processing facility.

In state waters, there are three offshore oil platforms — one off of Santa Barbara County and two in the Huntington Beach area. There is also a set of artificial islands that produce oil, including the THUMS Islands in San Pedro Bay near Long Beach.

Asked at Monday’s news conference about a resolution eliminating all offshore drilling operations, including existing platforms, Lawson-Remer said, “We would love for them all to be gone, but one step at a time. First, let’s not build any new rigs because we don’t need to dig ourselves deeper into this hole.”

According to a November 2021 report from the California Energy Commission, offshore production within state waters accounted for about 6% of all crude oil processed in California from 2011 through 2020. Facilities in federal waters equated to just 1% of all crude oil processed by refineries in the state.

It’s an open question whether many oil companies would be willing to expand offshore drilling in the Golden State.

David Hackett, president of Stillwater Associates, a transportation energy consulting company in Irvine, told the Union-Tribune last month, “it seems unlikely” that companies would jump in, given state government opposition and the fact that the price of domestic crude is hovering below $60 per barrel.

“That’s not enough money to go through all that,” Hackett said.

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