Sponsors (14)
The bill protects Northeast coastal environments and public health by banning new offshore oil and gas leasing, but it reduces regional fossil-fuel jobs and government revenues and removes a large leasing option that could limit future energy flexibility and complicate mixed-use offshore development.
Coastal communities (ME, NH, MA, RI, CT), nearby residents, and fisheries face a lower risk of offshore oil spills and related environmental and public-health harms because new oil and gas leasing in the Northeast OCS is banned.
Businesses and investors get clearer market signals that can encourage investment in renewables, coastal tourism, or non-fossil energy development rather than new offshore oil and gas projects.
Workers and companies that would have built or operated offshore oil and gas projects (construction and energy workers, service contractors) lose potential jobs and contracts in the region.
Federal and state governments (and thus taxpayers) may lose royalty, lease-sale, and tax revenues that offshore leasing would have generated, reducing future public revenue options.
Permanently removing leasing options in a large portion of the Northeast OCS reduces flexibility for future national energy planning and could complicate comprehensive responses to changing energy needs or technologies.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Seth Magaziner · Last progress April 10, 2025
Prohibits the federal government from issuing any oil or natural gas leases on the outer Continental Shelf off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It also assigns an official short title for the Act. The leasing ban is absolute and applies "notwithstanding any other provision of this section or any other law," preventing lease issuance in those OCS areas regardless of prior plans or other authorities.