Congress moves to permanently ban Atlantic offshore drilling in four key regions
S. 1486 — COAST Anti-Drilling Act of 2025 · Filed by Cory Booker (D-NJ) · 16 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 planning areas: North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida. The Secretary of Interior is prohibited from issuing any lease or authorization for exploration, development, or production of oil, natural gas, or other minerals in these zones. Citizens in coastal states gain protection from offshore drilling risks; the oil and gas industry loses access to these federal waters.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a permanent statutory prohibition on offshore oil and gas leasing in four Atlantic planning areas. It is a straightforward environmental and coastal-protection measure with no hidden provisions or riders.
What the text implies
- Permanently forecloses future Interior Department leasing decisions in these areas, removing discretion and preventing reversal by future administrations without new legislation.
- May affect existing lease sales or pending applications in the 2024–2029 leasing program if any were already issued; the bill's scope depends on whether 'lease' includes pre-existing rights.
- Coastal states and communities gain long-term certainty for tourism, fishing, and marine-resource planning, but oil and gas companies lose speculative lease opportunities.
- The bill references a specific 2024–2029 leasing program document, anchoring the prohibition to a defined geographic scope; changes to planning-area boundaries in future programs would not alter the prohibition.
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 permanent protection from offshore drilling, which reduces risks of oil spills, environmental degradation, and disruption to fishing and tourism economies. The restriction applies only to federal waters in specific planning areas and does not affect private property or existing leases, making it a targeted public-safety and environmental measure.
Named in the bill
Secretary of 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
16 cosponsors: 14 Democrats, 2 Independents.
- Apr 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $773,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 64 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Cory Booker, the sponsor, reported $496,300 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Ocean Conservancy — $403,000 on 2 filings
- Defenders of Wildlife — $370,000 on 2 filings
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 (1,381 characters) on Aug 19, 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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