DeSantis Opposes Trump Offshore Drilling Over Environmental Risks

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DeSantis: Trump’s oil drilling could ‘weaken’ environment, military training

By Liv Caputo

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Friday that President Donald Trump’s push to drill off the Florida coast could “weaken” environmental protections and interfere with military training.

DeSantis referred to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s plan to reinvigorate oil drilling off of Florida and Southern California for the first time in decades. The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf since 1995 because of oil spill concerns, the AP reported.

“We supported the 2020 decision that the Trump administration made at the time, we worked very closely with them. I thought it was very thoughtful policy in 2020,” DeSantis said during an unrelated Crystal River press conference Friday morning.

“Now what the Interior Department is proposing to do is really to go back off that policy, and I think that would weaken protections that we worked very hard to establish offshore.”

Those protections reflect environmental fears of damaging Florida’s coastlines and marine life and the military’s ability to train in the Panhandle. Florida has multiple military bases in Panama City and Pensacola.

“[The military says] it’s really important to be able to have that access to be able to do key training,” the governor continued. “We hope that they double down on the 2020 policy and not push ahead with what Interior wants to do now.”

This is one of the rarer instances of DeSantis breaking with Trump since the 2024 elections. The tension between the two ahead of and throughout the presidential primary had been replaced with a quieter complacency. Both Trump and DeSantis have been tightly aligned on most conservative issues, especially immigration, while public disagreement has stayed at a muted minimum.

‘Dead on arrival’

According to the Associated Press, the proposal targets six offshore lease sales between 2027 and 2030 along the California coast. It would also spur drilling at least 100 miles offshore of Florida in South-Central Gulf region and compel more than 20 lease sales off the Alaskan coast.

Backlash has been swift in all targeted states. In Florida, DeSantis became the latest Republican to add his voice to join a bipartisan outcry at the plan, joining lawmakers like U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a leading Trump ally, helped persuade the president in 2018 to drop a similar offshore plan when he served as governor.

Trump agreed at the time to maintain a drilling moratorium until 2032. Earlier this month, Scott and Moody co-sponsored legislation to codify that moratorium.

In 2010, the Gulf was rocked by a massive oil spill caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. Eleven men were killed, the rig began to sink, and a catastrophic oil leak sprouted from the well, NOAA reported. It would take three months to cap the spill, allowing roughly 134 million gallons of oil to seep into the ocean in the largest such spill in the nation’s history.

Politicos aren’t the only ones concerned about the new proposal.

Sierra Club Florida called the plan “unacceptable” and potentially detrimental to both the state’s environment and the economy.

“President Trump and his administration may be eager to hand out blank checks to oil and gas companies, but it will not be at Florida’s expense,” Javier Estevez, the group’s political and legislative director, said in a written statement. “We refuse to allow our coastal economies, quality of life, and irreplaceable natural resources to be sacrificed for corporate profit.

“Any such proposal is dead on arrival, and we will work tirelessly to ensure our coasts are protected.”