US lawmakers introduce bills to block drilling on America’s coasts

U.S. legislators have introduced several bills that, collectively, will block new oil drilling operations along the nation’s coasts, potentially stymieing U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to kickstart more offshore drilling.

“The waters off Maine’s coast provide a healthy ecosystem for our fisheries and are an integral part of our tourism industry, supporting thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars in revenue each year,” U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in a statement. “Offshore drilling along the coast could impact Mainers of all walks of life for generations, which is why I join my colleagues in introducing this legislation to ban offshore drilling on the New England coastline.”

Trump has been vocal about his desire to boost oil production via offshore drilling; one of the incoming president’s first acts in office was rescinding protections implemented by former U.S. President Joe Biden preventing oil or gas leasing in parts of the Arctic Coast, the Outer Continental Shelf, and the East Coast.

“We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said at his January inauguration. “America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have – the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth – and we are going to use it.”

In response, legislators in Congress have introduced a bevy of bills that would codify many of the protections put in place by Biden and block any future drilling developments. For instance, lawmakers representing New England states are backing the New England Coastal Protection Act, which would bar offshore drilling along the region’s coast.

“President Trump’s blatant efforts to benefit Big Oil will devastate economies and environments up and down the New England coast, including Long Island Sound,” U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said in a statement. “Our measure takes the bold action we need to prevent new offshore drilling and protect our waterways for future generations. Our coastline should be protected as a vital tourism, fishing, and environmental resource – not exposed to the dangers of oil spills or drilling pollution.”

Other bills would expand those protections to other parts of the nation’s coast and Outer Continental Shelf.

The COAST Anti-Drilling Act would protect the East Coast from Maine to Florida; the West Coast Ocean Protection Act would protect Oregon, Washington, and California’s coast; the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act would apply to the Arctic Ocean; the Florida Coastal Protection Act would apply to the Florida coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico; and the Defend Our Coast Act would protect the mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.

The pieces of legislation – some of which have been introduced previously – would exclude those areas from leases for future offshore oil or gras drilling.

The bills have received wide support from U.S. conservation groups, including NGO Oceana.