Gov. DeSantis pleads with Donald Trump administration to roll back offshore drilling plan

Gov. Ron DeSantis is speaking out against plans by the Donald Trump administration’s Department of the Interior to drill for oil in the Gulf of America off Florida’s coast.

The Governor is urging the Interior Department to shelve plans consistent with a first-term executive order from the President.

“We hope that they double down on the 2020 policy and not push ahead with what Interior wants to do now,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Crystal River.

Back then, Florida leaders were successful in taking waters close to Florida out of consideration for drilling until 2032.

The executive order was the main event at a campaign stop where Trump called himself the top President on the environment since Teddy Roosevelt, who established the United States Forest Service in 1905.

The Trump administration’s initial decision earlier in his term to open up the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast and Florida Straits to drilling received almost universally negative reaction from Florida lawmakers. That led then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to exclude Florida from any proposed offshore drilling plans because “its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.”

But this is a new day. Current proposals include potential drilling in the Gulf of America “Program Area B” in 2029 and 2030, with Florida coming online after waters adjacent to other Gulf states become open starting in 2027.

The waters being considered are at least 100 miles off the coast, but DeSantis said the plan could impact ecology and national security.

“I thought it was very thoughtful policy in 2020. 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,” DeSantis said.

”And yes, part of it’s environmental, but part of it’s military training. If you go talk to our folks up in the Panhandle who are stationed there, they will say it’s really important to be able to have that access to be able to do key training.”