Offshore Drilling: The 5-Year Program

With worsening climate and biodiversity crisesand repeated dire warnings about the urgency of getting off fossil fuels in order to sustain a habitable planet, it's surprising that the United States is even contemplating expanded offshore leasing for oil and gas. But given theenergy dominance narrativeof the current administration, we are moving in the wrong direction on fossil fuels.

Instead of embracing a clean energy future, this administration is doubling down on oil and gas, locking us into decades of future greenhouse gas emissions. The current administration is setting its agenda for offshore oil and gas development by starting to prepare the country's next five-year leasing programunder the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). Below is an overview of what this program is and why it matters.

What is the five-year program?

The United States conducts offshore oil and gas leasingthrough the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Under OCSLA Section 18(a), the Interior secretary is required to propose a five-year schedule of oil and gas lease sales, which the secretary "determines will best meet national energy needs for the five-year period following its approval." BOEM is tasked with identifying the ocean areas to be leased, as well as scheduling lease sales for the following five years. BOEM must also consider the effects of leasing on the environment and communities.

The current five-year program, finalized under the Biden administration, includes a record-low number of sales, with three offshore oil and gas lease sales scheduled between 2025 and 2029. But the current administration is likely to dramatically expand offshore oil and gas leasing, consistent with the president's Unleashing American Energyexecutive order and pro-fossil fuel policies. During the first Trump administration, the Interior Department released a draft five-year program scheduling 47 lease salesin just five years, including 12 salesin the Gulf of Mexico. The new five-year program could bring similar plans to life, dramatically increasing leasing in the Gulf and on nearly every U.S. coast.

How will this process unfold, and how can people and communities weigh in?

The Interior Department began this process by opening its first opportunity for public comment on the new five-year program. The comment period began in April 2025 and will run for 45 days. The agency is requesting comments on leasing in any and all federal waters off the continental United States and Alaska, including in the newly established High Arctic area, a remote swath of ocean starting miles from the northern coast of Alaska and extending toward the North Pole. Members of the public, advocacy groups, and anyone else can comment on areas where they do or do not want to see leasing, and the oil and gas industry may comment on where they would most like to buy leases.

After this initial request for information, BOEM will publish a draft schedule of lease sales in the draft proposed program, followed by another comment period. The draft schedule will likely cover a smaller geographic scope than the request for information, addressing the regions where BOEM is most likely to actually offer lease sales. Then BOEM will publish a proposed program, followed by a proposed final program, each of which will include an updated draft of the five-year schedule of lease sales. The proposed program and proposed final program will both offer opportunities for the public to weigh in. Usually, there are two ways to give BOEM input: by submitting an official comment online to the Federal Register or by attending and speaking at listening sessions/public hearings.

After it's finalized, the new five-year program will likely replace part of the existing Biden program, which was intended to run through 2029. From the request for information to a final program, this process can take years, with many opportunities for public comment.

Why is this upcoming five-year program so critical?

The next five-year plan could open up huge areas of our ocean-from the Gulf to the Arctic-to dangerous and dirty offshore drilling, not to mention the climate implications of continued fossil fuel extraction. The stakes couldn't be higher: Offshore drilling threatens the health of our ocean, our climate, and our coastal communities. Catastrophic oil spills-like the 2010 disaster on the Deepwater Horizonoil rig, the 1989 Exxon Valdezspillin Alaska, and the more recent 2024 Huntington Beach spillin California-cause ecological, economic, and public health damages that can last for decades.

The outcomes of this five-year program could mean the difference between a healthy ocean or one marred by oil spills, and a livable climate or increased disasters. We have to put people over polluters and ocean habitats over oil company profits and say no to more offshore oil and gas drilling.

The fossil fuel industry is already raking in record production and profits, and new offshore leasing makes no sense for the American public. Once the administration finalizes its leasing program, it is not easily changed. Your voice is critical during the five-year program process. This is the best chance we have to collectively say loudly and clearly that we do not want more offshore oil and gas drilling.

This blog was originally published on May 16, 2022, and has been updated with new information and links.

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