Trump's offshore oil ambitions sinking
A clumsy roll-out has imperiled a plan to open nearly all of America's waters to drilling
"After talking with @FLGovScott, I am removing #Florida from the draft offshore plan," the US interior secretary Ryan Zinke tweeted on 9 January. It's a tweet he and the Trump administration could come to regret. The announcement came after a meeting with Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott in which the latter had lobbied Zinke to remove the state from a recently released draft proposal that would open waters off nearly every inch of America's coastlines to oil and gas drilling. Zinke's quick acquiescence to Scott's request raised protests from nearly every corner. Democrats saw a cheap political stunt. The prospect of offshore drilling is deeply unpopular in Florida, where coastal comm
Also in this section
23 May 2025
LNG projects need the certainty of long-term contracts, but Henry-Hub–linked deals put buyers at significant risk
22 May 2025
Industry says compliance is near-impossible and have called for more clarity to prevent cargoes being redirected
22 May 2025
The next energy crisis could come from the severing of the link between oil and gas prices, with potentially severe economic consequences
22 May 2025
With contract awards looming on the Kuwait-Saudi backed Dorra field, the long-stalled gas project appears finally to be gaining traction—despite Iranian objections
