I submit the following comment regarding the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Draft Proposed Program for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (Docket ID: BOEM-2025-0483-0001). I strongly oppose any expansion of offshore oil and gas leasing in U.S. federal waters, and I urge BOEM to release a program with no expanded lease sales. Congress has already required numerous lease sales through recent legislation. BOEM should not compound that damage by expanding lease sales, especially when market momentum has been tepid and public opposition remains widespread. The timing of this proposal arrives just after the 15th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which many note as the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history. Proposing new offshore drilling so soon after this anniversary is an insult to the American people and a dismissal of the hard-learned lessons that come from losing American lives and livelihoods. I am also concerned that expanding offshore drilling will threaten the economic engines of our coastlines. This decision would compromise the millions of jobs, and multibillion dollar revenue, that our clean coasts generate in tourism, fisheries, and recreation. Offshore drilling generates routine pollution levels (not just one-off spill disasters) that leaves us, taxpayers, to shoulder disaster cleanup costs and rising insurance burdens. Neither should we accept this threat to irreplaceable marine wildlife, including the critically endangered Rice’s Whale. While I appreciate the exclusion of the Atlantic Coast and Pacific Northwest from the draft, its protections fall unacceptably short for Alaska, California, Florida, and Gulf ecosystems. BOEM should note that these federal waters are particularly deeper and more remote, meaning any spills would be much harder to contain. The American public has made our bipartisan opposition to offshore drilling expansions clear for decades. Coastal businesses, fishing families, bipartisan lawmakers, and scientists have repeatedly called for ocean protection for the sake of our precious marine ecosystems and our national heritage. No amount of profit can justify a loss of our healthy coastlines, a source of pride and enjoyment for all Americans. I urge BOEM to withdraw this wildly unpopular draft and refrain from scheduling any new offshore oil and gas lease sales beyond those already mandated. Sincerely, | 
In short, the plan embraces new drilling opportunities and expands lease sales into protected areas in California, Alaska, Florida, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Joy Reeves
