Salem, Oregon – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Andrea Salinas, Maxine Dexter, and Janelle Bynum, have asked President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to stop any plans to open additional offshore oil and gas leases immediately. Along with more than 100 other members of Congress, the Oregon lawmakers called for the administration’s plan to extend drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic Ocean, northern Bering Sea, and Eastern Gulf to be stopped.
The lawmakers wrote in their letter that the action would put coastal businesses at risk, harm marine ecosystems, and put public health and safety at risk. They said that further offshore drilling would destroy years of bipartisan work to preserve the environment and the economy for millions of Americans.
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The letter made it clear that oil spills continue to be a big problem for coastal areas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that more than 150 oil and chemical spills happen every year, and cleaning them up and fixing the damage can be very expensive. A single big leak can cost billions of dollars in damage to the economy, lowering housing prices and hurting the fishing and tourism sectors that coastal communities depend on.
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The congressmen also talked about recent changes to NOAA’s oil spill prevention and response programs. They said that about 30% of the division’s staff has already been lost due to layoffs or early retirements. The administration’s proposed budget for 2026 would cut funding even more, leaving important response teams without enough resources.
“This is a matter of national consequence for coastal communities across the country, regardless of political affiliation. It puts our economies, national security, and our most vulnerable ecosystems at severe risk,” wrote the lawmakers. “… Expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines.”
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The Department of Defense has also warned that drilling in some regions of the Eastern Gulf and Atlantic will get in the way of important military training and testing areas. Defense officials had already named a few places as “not compatible” with oil and gas infrastructure because they are important to national security.
The Oregon delegation criticized the government for supporting the growth of fossil fuels while also stopping the growth of offshore wind. This year, the government took back all of the offshore wind leases that were already in place, canceled the designated Wind Energy Areas, and cut $679 million in funding for port infrastructure projects related to wind energy. This included more than $426 million for Humboldt Bay in California.
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The congressmen asked President Trump and Secretary Burgum to safeguard U.S. coastlines by stopping new leases, bringing back legal limits on drilling, funding projects that make the coast more resilient, and bringing back renewable energy programs. They ended by saying again that “America’s coastal communities cannot be sacrificed in the name of short-term drilling booms,” and they called the government’s actions “a dereliction of public trust.”
Full text of the letter is available by clicking here and below:
Dear Mr. President and Secretary Burgum:
We write to express our strongest opposition to any effort to open new offshore oil and gas leasing in federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the Arctic Ocean and northern Bering Sea off of Alaska, and in the Eastern Gulf. This is a matter of national consequence for coastal communities across the country, regardless of political affiliation. It puts our economies, national security, and our most vulnerable ecosystems at severe risk. These reported proposals would reverse long-standing protections that shield sensitive coastal waters from new drilling, including withdrawals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, statutory moratoria, and agency restrictions.
Expanded oil and gas leasing poses risks to the health and livelihoods of our constituents, jeopardizes our tourism, fishing, and recreation economies, and threatens the marine life that inhabits our coastlines. Many of these communities are already reeling from compounded disasters: hurricanes, sea-level rise, storm surge, and the lingering legacy of oil-spill disasters. Since 1980, hurricanes alone have generated well over $1.5 trillion in damage in the United States. Expanding offshore leasing increases the likelihood that future storms, oil spills, or other disasters will impose even greater burdens on front-line coastal communities.
In addition to storms, the threat of oil spills remains real and costly. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard reported a spill of more than 30,000 gallons of “oily-watery mixture” off Louisiana’s coast earlier this year. Oil spill damage threatens not just the environment, but the value of coastal homes, the health of tourism economies, and the resilience of coastal infrastructure. A single catastrophic spill could cost taxpayers, states, and local communities tens of billions of dollars in cleanup costs, lost revenue, and degraded ecosystems. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) already responds to over 150 oil and chemical spills in U.S. waters every year. Under the administration’s proposed plan, every part of the United States’ coastline would be at risk of disaster.
These risks are magnified by the administration’s dismantling of NOAA and its oil spill prevention and response programs. Nearly 30 percent of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration Emergency Response Division staff—the team that addresses oil spills—were already laid off or took early retirement as part of the administration’s ongoing reductions in force. The administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would cut in half funding for the oil spill program and the Emergency Response Division.
Under the administration’s reported plans, harmful seismic testing could take place across every coast. NOAA Fisheries recently concluded that oil and gas activities like seismic exploration in the Gulf of Mexico could drive the endangered Rice’s whale—of which only a few dozen individuals remain—to extinction. Seismic testing for oil and gas disrupts communication, navigation, and breeding among whales, fish, and other marine species, inflicting irreversible harm on ocean ecosystems.
The administration’s reported plans would also open up oil and gas leasing in areas the Department of Defense (DOD) has previously stated would be problematic for military readiness. Leaked documents report that the administration will conduct leasing in parts of the Eastern Gulf, which includes irreplaceable military training and testing opportunities and assets. The DOD has similarly labeled portions of the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Planning Areas “not compatible with oil and gas activities and infrastructure.”
The United States already leads the world in oil and gas production. The industry currently holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering over 12 million acres of federal waters —yet fewer than 500 of those leases are actively producing oil and gas. There is no justification for opening vast swaths of our oceans to leasing when existing leases remain largely unused, while imposing mounting environmental and economic costs on coastal communities.
While the administration prepares to expand offshore drilling, it is simultaneously undermining offshore wind and clean energy development, thereby reducing our ability to expand energy supplies and build resilient coastal economies. On January 20, 2025, the President issued a memorandum withdrawing all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing, pending review. On July 30, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) rescinded all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs). The Department of the Interior has issued directives curbing so-called “preferential treatment” for wind and solar, and the U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew $679 million in offshore-wind-related port infrastructure funding. These actions raise electricity costs for families, make our coastlines less safe, and our communities more vulnerable.
We therefore urge your administration to take the following actions to reverse course immediately:
- Halt any steps toward new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Atlantic, Pacific, off the coast the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts of Alaska, and the Eastern Gulf;
- Limit offshore drilling, consistent with previous statutory and agency protections;
- Prioritize coastal resilience, including expanded storm-surge and flood protection, restoration of wetlands and sand dunes, and early-warning systems, so that communities in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, New Jersey, Alaska, and beyond are better protected; and
- Restore a credible pathway for offshore wind and other clean-energy projects by rescinding the OCS wind-leasing withdrawal and rescinded WEAs, enabling science-based projects that support jobs and coastal economies.
Protecting our waters from offshore drilling is broadly supported by the American public. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters oppose new offshore drilling, and hundreds of municipalities along the Atlantic, Pacific, the eastern Gulf, and these regions of Alaska have passed formal resolutions against its expansion. These communities have made clear that safeguarding their coastal economies, fisheries, and way of life must take precedence over short-term fossil fuel interests. Our coastal communities, fishermen, small business owners, Tribal Nations, tourism operators, and families cannot be sacrificed in the name of short-term drilling booms. Opening new offshore lease areas while cancelling clean energy progress is potentially illegal, a failure of leadership, and a dereliction of the public trust.
We look forward to your prompt response detailing what specific steps the Administration will take to halt this course of action and recommit to safeguarding our nation’s shores, economy, and shared future.
Sincerely,
