Important Update: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced a new and unexpected request for “nominations” for offshore oil and gas leasing in the Central and Southern California Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Planning Areas.

Nominations are typically submitted later in the federal leasing process and are most often used by oil and gas companies to identify where they want to drill. By moving this step forward, BOEM is accelerating the process in a way that has raised significant legal and policy concerns. In response, California coastal communities are submitting “negative nominations” — formal requests to exclude offshore areas from leasing consideration based on environmental sensitivity, existing legal protections, and the importance of these waters to our coastal economy and fisheries.

You can help by submitting comments to both Federal Register requests below. You may use the suggested language provided, add your own perspective, or modify it to reflect your community or organization.

Suggested Comment Language

Please accept these negative nominations for all OCS tracts within both the Southern California OCS Planning Area as well as the Central California OCS Planning Area. In response to the requests in the Federal Register, this entire region encompasses globally-significant ocean upwelling systems that provide regional marine food sources, a world-class network of National Marine Sanctuaries in which oil and gas activities are statutorily precluded, and sustainable fisheries essential to our state’s economic well-being. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

You are encouraged to personalize your comment by adding your own experiences, local knowledge, or organizational perspective.

Please submit your comment to both links below:

Submit Comment – Central California OCS

Submit Comment – Southern California OCS