Oceana Condemns Passage of the Worst Environmental Bill in U.S. History
The budget reconciliation legislation will increase oil and gas drilling, undermine environmental laws, and cut key federal programs that support our oceans
Press Release Date: July 3, 2025
Location: Washington, D.C.
Contact:
Cory Gunkel, Megan Jordan | email: cgunkel@oceana.org, mjordan@oceana.org | tel: Cory Gunkel, 202.868.4061
Today, the U.S. Congress passed a budget reconciliation bill that slashes a wide range of federal investments for essential ocean and environmental programs, while increasing offshore oil drilling and pollution across the country. The bill will significantly expand offshore oil leasing in the western and central Gulf of Mexico, and off Alaska, while overriding critical protections for coastal communities and wildlife.
Beth Lowell, Oceana Vice President for the United States, released the following statement in response:
“Thriving and abundant oceans should not be bargaining chips at the Congressional table. This big, terrible bill is the worst environmental legislation in American history, unraveling safeguards and investments that Americans — and coastal economies — rely on and need. This disastrous bill would require the largest expansion of offshore oil and gas lease sales by area ever in the United States. We should be protecting our coasts and oceans, not opening the floodgates to more offshore drilling and increasing the risk of dangerous oil spills.”
The provisions of the budget reconciliation bill will mandate at least 30 offshore oil lease sales in the western and central Gulf of Mexico in the next 15 years at no less than 80 million acres each. The bill will also require at least six lease sales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet over the next 10 years. The legislation bypasses the normal procedure for offshore drilling by giving Congress the unusual power to determine where offshore lease sales will occur. It would also authorize outdated science and ineffective management procedures that would exacerbate the risk to marine life from offshore oil and gas development.
A poll released by Oceana in July 2024 revealed that two-thirds of American voters (64%) support their elected officials protecting U.S. coastlines from new offshore drilling, with similar support among registered voters in coastal states (66%). The poll also found this support grew among youth voters 18 to 29 years of age (70%).
There are also broad waivers and exemptions in the bill for polluters, along with provisions that undermine the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). This bedrock environmental law has provided science-based, transparent, and accountable safeguards for decades.