Congress moves to permanently ban Atlantic offshore drilling in four key zones
H.R. 2881 — COAST Anti-Drilling Act of 2025 · Filed by Frank Pallone (D-NJ) · 41 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal law to permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling in four Atlantic Ocean planning areas: the North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida. The Secretary of the Interior is prohibited from issuing any lease or authorization for oil, gas, or mineral exploration in these zones, overriding any conflicting law.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a permanent statutory ban on offshore oil and gas leasing in four Atlantic planning areas. It is a straightforward environmental protection measure with no hidden provisions or cross-purposes.
What the text implies
- Permanently forecloses future revenue from federal lease sales in these areas, eliminating a potential source of federal income and reducing Interior Department discretion over energy development.
- May affect the 2024–2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program by rendering portions of it unexecutable in the named planning areas.
- Establishes a geographic precedent for permanent drilling bans; similar bills targeting other planning areas (e.g., Pacific, Alaska) could follow.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens in Atlantic coastal states gain environmental protection, reduced risk of offshore spills and their economic/ecological consequences, and preserved coastal tourism and fishing economies. The prohibition is permanent and categorical, eliminating regulatory uncertainty and the threat of future lease sales in these sensitive areas.
Named in the bill
Secretary of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSL Act), North Atlantic planning area, Mid-Atlantic planning area, South Atlantic planning area, Straits of Florida planning area
Where it stands
41 cosponsors: 38 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Apr 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 10, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 5 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,053,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 59 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Frank Pallone, the sponsor, reported $1,601,749 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Ocean Conservancy — $403,000 on 2 filings
- Defenders of Wildlife — $370,000 on 2 filings
- Oceana Inc — $280,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,229 characters) on Aug 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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