The first offshore oil rig in the United States was built in the late 19th century, about 5 miles off the coast of a southern California town aptly named Summerland. It was also there that the first major oil spill disaster occurred in U.S. history.

In 1969, a buildup of pressure caused roughly 3 million gallons of crude oil to erupt into the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara County, home to sandpipers, sea kelp, sea lions, and bright orange Garibaldi fish. 

The disaster inspired the first national Earth Day and galvanized today’s modern environmental movement. Not long after the spill, the California State Lands Commission put a temporary moratorium on new offshore oil and gas leasing in state waters, and drilling slowed down. While leases granted before 1969 continue to bring in revenue for the state, the federal government has not held lease sales off the Pacific Coast since the late 1980s. 

I grew up in Santa Barbara, where having a bird’s-eye view of several offshore oil rigs was both somewhat whimsical and deeply frustrating.

If you didn’t know better, the rigs looked like big fishing ships. Local kids knew to look out for an optical illusion visible from a car driving up the 101 freeway at night: One of the platforms looked like a glowing Santa’s sleigh, taking off from a pier on its way to bring children toys. 

We also knew the rigs released tar: thick globs of black goo that washed up on beaches, mixing with sea glass and sticking to the soles of your feet. Later, residents discovered how devastating the emissions released by the rigs while drilling—and when oil and gas were burned—could be. Santa Barbara has experienced 15 major wildfires since 2009 and one post-fire mudflow that killed 23 people, highlighting the impacts of climate-change-fueled disasters. My parents were evacuated because of two of the fires. The mudflow was the first disaster I ever covered as a reporter.

Today, just 11 of the original 60 rigs remain operating in state waters, while 22 rigs drill on the outer continental shelf by the federal government. Of those, nine offshore rigs are currently in the process of being decommissioned. It makes sense why California would not want a repeat of its past when the worst-case scenarios have been so well documented, and are unfortunately still being reaped. 

But as of last week, President Trump is looking to force California to reverse course. 

The Interior Department released plans last Thursday to open new offshore drilling leases in federal waters off the coast of California for the first time in four decades. The proposal also includes setting up offshore rigs in Alaska’s remote High Arctic region for the first time, and expanding drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico—where locals don’t have to look far back in history to remember what an oil spill could do to their tourism and beaches. 

Collectively, the plan would open about 1.27 billion acres to offshore drilling. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called it a “robust, forward-thinking leasing plan.” It’s also an administrative act of doubling down. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed earlier this year with language that allows for six lease auctions off Alaska’s coast and 30 in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 10 to 15 years. 

Ten state AGs already submitted comments to the Interior Department during the summer opposing any plan to increase offshore drilling, arguing it was too much of a risk to the marine and coastal ecosystems. Now, leaders from all three areas that are set to see renewed lease sales are crying foul—including Florida Republicans. 

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan told E&E News that a moratorium on drilling off the Sunshine State’s beaches was one of his top issues: “The reason being, is it affects not only the value of homes and real estate, it affects tourism and, more importantly, it’s just bad for the environment.”

As to be expected, this latest offshore drilling proposal—which would open six oil and gas auctions off California’s coast between 2026 and 2031—was not received well by California’s leaders. 

“It’s never going to happen. Over our dead body. Dead on arrival. Period. Full stop,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters after a draft version of the plan leaked during COP30 earlier this month. 

Newsom said of Trump: “He’s trying to re-create the 19th century.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta—who some say might be jockeying to replace Newsom as governor when his term runs out in 2027—wrote in a statement following last week’s proposal that California is “not a rich man’s playground, and the president cannot come and extract resources as he pleases.”

It turns out offshore drilling is extremely unpopular, no matter what your politics. And it is a unifier when it comes to acknowledging the need to protect the environment.