This fall, the Trump Administration announced a five-year plan to lease the coasts of Alaska, California and Florida for offshore oil and gas drilling. Despite bipartisan opposition to this plan, the Trump Administration is moving ahead to expose our coasts to pollution and disruption, while communities and wildlife pay with their health and well-being. Submit a comment before the January 23 deadline to urge BOEM and the Department of Interior to rescind its proposal to expand oil and gas drilling on our coasts! 

Here's how to submit your comment:

1. Draft or copy sample comment. Copy our sample comment, which can be found at the bottom of the page
2. Go to the website. Click here to find the comment submission page.
3. Paste in your comment. Scroll down slightly until you see a large white text box. Paste the comment inside the text box. If you'd like, you can edit the comment at this stage. (Optional: In the text box with "Email" written beside it, type your email address. Click the box right below the text box to receive an email confirmation of your comment submission, as well as its tracking number.)  
4. Identify yourself. Scroll down slightly to the section of the comment submission form where it asks you to identify yourself, and click the small circle to the left of the text that describes you best.  
5. Acknowledge. Scroll down, and click the box to acknowledge that you are submitting a comment. 
6. Submit. Finally, click submit comment. That's it!
    

Sample Comment to COPY and THEN PASTE on the comment page on Regulations.gov (DON'T FORGET THE SECOND STEP!)

Dear BOEM Acting Director Matthew Giacona and Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, 

I am writing in response to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Draft Proposed Program for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. I urge BOEM not to proceed with scheduling any new lease sales through a new Five-Year Program. Instead, BOEM should protect our coasts from offshore drilling and the environmental disruptions it creates. 

Coastal regions contribute billions of dollars to the national economy and support millions of jobs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in June 2025 that the United States' marine economy contributed $511 billion to the GDP and $827 billion in sales; both the GDP contribution and income through sales grew around 5% since 2022. However, drilling in these waters would introduce significant consequences to local economies, which are driven by tourism and fruitful natural resources. For example, Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, which has 20 pending lawsuits against oil and gas companies for their failures to restore infrastructure and environments damaged by offshore oil drilling, suffered immense devastation following the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. 55% of Louisiana's state waters were rendered off-limits, requiring local fishermen to travel extensively, exhausting resources and time, to fish. By 2020, the impact of the spill also caused the loss of more than 25,000 jobs and $2.3 billion in industry output. Our healthy coasts keep our economy thriving; offshore drilling puts it at serious risk.

The destruction caused by oil spills devastate marine wildlife. For example, the Deepwater Horizon disaster caused dolphin populations to decline by 43% and beaked whale populations to decline by 83%. However, this devastation also reached the local communities exposed to the oil spill, including the workers who cleaned it up.  The National Institute of Environmental Health Science's Gulf Long-term Follow-up Study (GuLF STUDY) found that workers who helped clean up the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill were 60% more likely than workers who did aid in the cleanup effort to be diagnosed with asthma or suffer from asthma-like symptoms one to three years after the spill. Similarly, the GuLF STUDY also published a paper in the journal JAMA Network Open that workers were at increased risk of developing hypertension, or high blood pressure. Under this proposed lease sale, some of the locations being considered for drilling are further from shore in deeper waters, making them even more difficult to clean up in the event of a spill, especially off Alaska and in the Arctic. By polluting the water and air, offshore drilling and oil spills create unsafe environments for nearby communities and wildlife, imperiling public health, and destroying the landscapes that are home to countless animal and plant species.  

Communities across the United States depend on healthy oceans in order to sustain local economies, safeguard public health, and serve as stewards of the environment. Increasing offshore drilling will exacerbate the climate crisis, increase the chances of endangering fragile aquatic habitats, contaminate local food systems, and pollute the air and water. Because of the threats to the environment, aquatic ecosystems, coastal communities, and marine economies, I strongly oppose new oil and gas exploration and lease sales in all federal waters.

Sincerely, 

After you've submitted your comment, let us know how it goes!