Key Takeaways
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has taken action on two of President Trump’s executive orders: one to increase oil leases on the nation’s vast Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and another to expedite permitting of activities related to energy and minerals on federal lands.
In recognition of the Biden administration’s anemic 5-year OCS leasing plan — comprising just three sales over five years for the fewest leases in history — the secretary has announced the drafting of a new 5-year plan to supplement it.
Offshore currently provides 14% of the nation’s oil production and 2% of its natural gas production.
Burgum has also moved to streamline permitting for energy and mineral projects on federal lands through emergency authorities under existing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.
Activities requiring environmental assessments would be reviewed within 14 days, while those requiring environmental impact statements would have statements issued within 28 days.
With an average mine permitting time approaching 29 years, the United States has become increasingly dependent on foreign imported minerals, particularly from China, that are essential to national security, economic security, manufacturing, and medical applications.
Secretary Doug Burgum has initiated action on two of President Trump’s executive orders — one regarding offshore oil leasing and another concerning the expedited permitting of projects on federal lands. Regarding the former, the Interior Department will draft a new five-year lease plan for the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to eventually replace the one produced by the Biden administration, which limited lease sales to just three over a period of five years — the fewest in the history of offshore oil drilling. The second action is to utilize emergency powers to expedite permitting for a wide range of energy and mineral activities, which generally take multiple years, to a maximum of 28 days. The measures were designed to expedite the reviewing and approval process for energy and mining projects needing leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, generation, or exploration permits.
Interior to Revise Biden’s Offshore Drilling Plan
The Interior Department will begin drafting a new five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan, the 11th National OCS Program, that could include new zones in the Arctic and elsewhere to maximize energy development. The department is opening a 45-day public comment period to begin the process of developing the plan. It is not proposing a specific timeline or locations for new leasing auctions. Rather, it wants stakeholders to provide insight and recommendations for leasing opportunities, raise concerns, and identify other existing uses that may be affected by offshore leasing. Because Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) recently gained jurisdiction over a new planning area in the High Arctic and the boundaries of other outer continental shelf planning areas are being revised, new acreage may become available to drillers.
Drilling auctions scheduled for the next several years by the Biden administration in the Gulf of Mexico (now the Gulf of America) will still be held. The Biden-era plan for offshore drilling included the fewest number of opportunities for new drilling in the program’s history. Once finalized, the 11th National OCS Program will replace the current 10th Program (2024–2029), which includes just three lease sales over five years, all located in the Gulf of America. While BOEM continues work to complete those sales, development of the 11th Program will proceed concurrently.
The direction is consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy.” The order makes it U.S. policy to “encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including the Outer Continental Shelf, to meet the needs of our citizens and solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future.”
As of April 1, 2025, BOEM manages 2,227 active oil and gas leases covering approximately 12.1 million acres in OCS regions. Of these, 469 leases are currently producing oil and gas. In fiscal year 2024, production from OCS leases accounted for approximately 14% of domestic oil production and 2% of domestic natural gas production, yielding $7 billion in federal revenues. The OCS holds vast quantities of undiscovered energy resources, with a mean estimate of 68.79 billion barrels of oil and 229.03 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The only way to determine the actual numbers is through exploration that accompanies leasing, which is enhanced by evolving technologies.
Interior Implements Emergency Permitting Procedures
The Trump administration is implementing an emergency permitting process for energy and mining projects on federal lands, cutting approval times that typically take months or years to at most 28 days. The Interior Department is implementing a national emergency declaration that President Donald Trump issued on his first day in office to speed permitting in an effort to boost domestic energy supplies. According to Interior Secretary Burgum, “We are cutting through unnecessary delays to fast-track the development of American energy and critical minerals—resources that are essential to our economy, our military readiness, and our global competitiveness. By reducing a multi-year permitting process down to just 28 days, the Department will lead with urgency, resolve, and a clear focus on strengthening the nation’s energy independence.” The Interior Department will use emergency authorities under existing regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act, which will enable faster permitting timelines.
The process will apply to a wide range of energy sources, including oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal, hydropower, and critical minerals.
The Interior Department will adopt an alternative NEPA compliance process to allow for more concise documents and a compressed timeline. Projects analyzed in an environmental assessment, normally taking up to one year, will now be reviewed within approximately 14 days. Projects requiring a full environmental impact statement, typically a two-year process, will be reviewed in roughly 28 days. Since 1970, NEPA has required federal agencies to study the environmental effects of projects such as new transmission lines, highways, or pipelines that require federal permits, but its application has been vastly expanded in practice to include a much wider range of activities than originally anticipated.
For the Endangered Species Act, an expedited Section 7 consultation process will be implemented. In the process, the appropriate bureau will notify the Fish and Wildlife Service that it is using emergency consultation procedures. After this notification, the appropriate bureau can then proceed with deciding whether to approve the action.
To comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act regarding the energy emergency, bureaus will follow alternative procedures. These include notifying the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, State and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, and any Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization that may attach religious and cultural significance to historic properties likely to be affected by a proposed undertaking, affording them an opportunity to comment within seven days of the notification. Following that procedure, the appropriate bureau will take all comments received into account and then decide whether to approve the proposed undertaking.
The United States has the second-longest timeline in the world to bring mines online, 29 years, which has undercut American mining competitiveness and been one of the causes of America’s dependence on imports of minerals, particularly from China. Hopefully, these changes will provide a better forum to compete with China, from which the United States imports its critical minerals.
Conclusion
The Interior Department is working to make President Trump’s energy and mineral security goals a reality. Secretary Burgum has initiated two actions — one to create more lease sales than the three the Biden administration had in its five-year lease plan, and the other to fast-track permitting to reduce the bottlenecks that cause higher energy prices, limit affordable energy from reaching consumers, and make the United States dependent on mineral imports from places such as China. President Trump has issued executive orders that address these issues and has declared a national emergency to move his initiatives forward.
