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"If you have a state which is already open, it's

Nov. 25, 2018 by Carolyn Mueller

"If you have a state which is already open, it's not an issue, it's a matter of the state being responsible for the state's waters," states state representative Steve Stavridis told Politico. "It's not an issue about who owns the wells. It's an issue about the state's ability to govern. So, there's no question that you can make your own decisions on whether to open up your state's waters to this type of oil drilling."

In response, the Trump administration has said it's keeping the Texas oil drilling rig out of state waters, and its Interior Department has said it can't open any more offshore areas because it's not a state.

For this reason, Zinke's move hasn't been the only one to get sued. In July, Republican lawmakers in Florida passed a bill that would have required the Interior Department to set a rule allowing the US government to open up its waters to offshore oil drilling, but it got a lot of backlash from the oil industry.

"The law is a little bit vague, but we've talked about it, and we see it being quite problematic," says Michael Mecenaecker, vice president of global drilling at the US Geological Survey (USGS). "The first thing that's always going to be a sticking point is the 'disqualification' of the USGS's waters from offshore oil drilling. If these things are going to fall out of existence the way they are, they're going to fall out of existence too."

Even before the Texas ruling, the oil industry had been pushing its case for more control over its waters. In April, Oil & Gas America, a trade group representing the industry, published an article on its website warning that the US was "dismantling its oil-producing waters" and that the "perception that we are the world's most important oil producer is being undermined." In February, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its annual report on Arctic drilling, which showed that drilling by oil and gas companies is down by more than 13,000 barrels per day (bpd) since 1998.

"This is a very disturbing set of findings that is troubling and should be immediately addressed," EIA's director of climate and energy policy, David N. Stewart, wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. "We urge the federal government to take immediate and comprehensive steps to stop all offshore drilling and to stop offshore oil drilling. We urge all states to continue to work collaboratively