President Trump is once again pushing to expand offshore oil and gas drilling off California’s coast — and calling it “national security.” Californians have heard this before. We also know what it risks: our coastline, our coastal economy, and the climate stability our communities depend on. And offshore drilling isn’t the only front. The same push is now aimed at California’s public lands, proposing to open more than one million acres statewide — including roughly 400,000 acres of parks, beaches, ecological reserves, and surrounding lands on the Central Coast and beyond — to new oil and gas drilling.
If national security were truly the goal, we would see an all-of-the-above energy strategy that strengthens resilience, lowers costs, and builds industries that can compete globally. Instead, Trump is doubling down on oil, gas, and coal while deriding and undercutting renewable energy — even using “national security” claims to block offshore wind projects already underway on the Atlantic coast.
That contradiction points to a deeper truth: where a society gets its energy shapes who holds power — and who bears the burdens of dirty energy.