# West Coast Ocean Protection Act of 2025

This bill would permanently ban oil and gas drilling in the ocean waters off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. Right now, the federal government can lease areas of the ocean floor to oil and gas companies for exploration and drilling. This bill would change that by making it illegal for the government to issue any new leases or permits for oil and gas activities in these West Coast waters. The ban would apply to all three stages of the process: exploring for oil and gas, developing the infrastructure to extract it, and actually producing it.

The specific ocean areas affected are divided into four planning zones: the Washington/Oregon area, Northern California, Central California, and Southern California. These are the same regions that the federal government had been considering for potential oil and gas leasing in its 2024-2029 program. By passing this bill, Congress would essentially remove these areas from future consideration for energy development, making the protection permanent rather than temporary.

For people living on the West Coast, this means the ocean waters near their beaches would be off-limits to new oil drilling operations. This could affect fishing communities, tourism-dependent areas, and anyone concerned about potential oil spills or environmental damage to marine ecosystems. On the flip side, oil and gas companies would lose the opportunity to develop these offshore resources, which could impact energy production and related jobs in the industry. The bill essentially prioritizes ocean conservation and environmental protection over energy development in these particular waters.