Dear NRDC Activist,

The Trump administration just announced it’s seeking public comments on its dangerous plan for new offshore oil and gas drilling off the coast of southern and central California. But we don’t want more drilling along California’s coast.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
This announcement comes months after the administration recklessly proposed expanding oil and gas drilling across more than a billion acres of U.S. waters, including off the California coast.

It underscores their crystal clear agenda: Drill, baby, drill, no matter the cost to our oceans and the wildlife and people who have depended on them for generations. And we won’t let it stand.

The administration is seeking public comments on this dangerous plan until February 26. Send them a message loud and clear: The American public does not want more offshore drilling, in California or anywhere else.

WHY IT MATTERS
In the face of the worsening climate crisis, the administration is boosting oil and gas drilling that locks us into decades of future greenhouse gas emissions instead of embracing a clean energy future — and allowing corporate polluters to destroy our public lands and waters in the process.

Congress has already mandated an unprecedented 36 lease sales for offshore oil and gas drilling to be held over the next 15 years. Oil and gas companies do not need more access to our oceans when the U.S. already has more than enough energy to meet demand.

WHAT WE ARE DOING
NRDC is fighting back attacks on our ocean in court on multiple fronts. Along with other environmental groups, we filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s decision to hold the first of the 36 offshore lease sales mandated by last year’s budget bill, which would open 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to drilling.

NRDC and our partners also sued the administration last year over an executive order that would illegally open more than 625 million acres of U.S. waters to offshore drilling.

And once the administration finalizes their dangerous drilling plan, NRDC will use every appropriate tool to defend our waters. Our lawyers are at the ready.

NRDC supporters like you submitted nearly 30,000 public comments last month opposing the Trump administration’s dangerous plan to expand drilling off the coast of California, Florida, Alaska, and the Gulf.

But we need your help again to raise a massive outcry defending our ocean waters that the administration can’t ignore.

Public comments are crucial to build the best case possible against the administration’s destructive plan — they create a public record showing wide support for our ocean, and they can give NRDC legal standing to challenge federal agencies if they disregard your input. The Trump administration is trying to shorten comment periods and stifle public input. We won’t let them.

Send your public comment to protect our waters from dangerous offshore drilling by the February 26 deadline.

WHAT’S AT STAKE
Offshore oil and gas development along the California coast would:

• Severely harm endangered and imperiled whales like blue, humpback, and fin whales, as well as famous West Coast gray whales, which are already in a state of steep decline.
• Expose communities to harmful pollution that can lead to health concerns like asthma, cardiovascular disease, and cancers.
• Drive more climate change-fueled extreme weather incidents.
• Put coastal communities and economies at risk — California’s ocean economy alone employs nearly half a million people and generates over $44 billion in annual GDP, so a single major oil spill will devastate this economic engine that our country relies on.

This is the moment to speak out in defense of our oceans and all they support. Please, submit your public comment opposing the Trump administration’s reckless drilling plans.

Sincerely,
Irene Gutierrez
Senior Attorney, Nature, NRDC