Friday, Jan. 23, the deadline for public comments related to federal proposal to open up new area for leases
Facing a deadline of Friday, Jan. 23, the Sarasota City Commission voted unanimously on Jan. 20 to adopt a formal resolution opposing the federal government’s proposal to sell leases for oil and gas drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast.
Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, who had asked that the item be placed on the agenda, made the motion for approval, and Commissioner Kyle Battie seconded it.
On Nov. 20, 2025 — as Sarasota City Engineer Sage Kamiya pointed out during a presentation before the vote — the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that Secretary Doug Burgum had issued an order directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management “to take the necessary steps, in accordance with federal law, to terminate the restrictive Biden 2024–2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Share Program and replace it with a new, expansive 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program by October 2026,” as an Interior department news release explained.
Kamiya told the city commissioners that Burgum’s proposal included a new administrative planning area, the South-Central Gulf of America.
“This … has the potential to allow future offshore lease sales and the things that go along with that,” Kamiya added.
The State of Florida has made clear its opposition to the prospect of such drilling off the coast, and other local jurisdictions have adopted formal resolutions of opposition to the proposal, he continued. Among them are Sarasota and Manatee counties, Okaloosa County and the Cities of Destin and St. Pete Beach, he noted.
Among the reasons cited, Kamiya continued, are concerns about the environment and economic consequences, such as those fisherman could face.
For the City of Sarasota, he pointed out, tourism, recreation and fisheries “and all the related industries that go with [those activities],” could suffer. He also cited the risks of oil spills and “environmental degradation.”
The City Commission’s adoption of the proposed resolution, Kamiya said, “would ensure that the City of Sarasota’s position is clearly stated, formally documented and included in the public record for the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies as they evaluate leasing decisions.”
Following Kamiya’s remarks, Commissioner Ahearn-Koch told her colleagues that she knows they, like her, have attended Florida League of Cities meetings when the potential sales of new oil and gas leases were discussed.
“This is something that is really important,” she stressed, adding that she believes her colleagues realize that. “I do hope that this commission wholeheartedly supports this effort,” Ahearn-Koch said, referring to adoption of the resolution.
“I know the public appreciates your presentation and recommendation,” Mayor Debbie Trice told Kamiya and City Public Works Director Nik Patel, who had joined Kamiya for the remarks to the board members.
The County Commission vote
During the County Commission’s last regular meeting of 2025 — conducted on Dec. 16 — Rob Lewis, director of governmental relations for the county, noted the concerns about offshore oil drilling as he discussed that board’s federal legislative program for this year.
As of the date that the proposed items for that program were published, Lewis said, the list did not mention the offshore drilling issue. However, he pointed out, past proposals of that nature have been part of the county’s federal legislative program.
The state’s opposition to offshore oil and gas drilling has bipartisan support, Lewis added.
Commissioner Mark Smith suggested that the board add its opposition to oil and gas drilling off the Florida coast to the 2026 federal legislative program.
“We had a big scare with Deepwater Horizon,” Smith pointed out, referring to the explosion and sinking of the BP oil drilling rig in the Gulf in April 2010, which resulted in 4 million barrels of oil flowing into the water body over 87 days, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency points out. In its December 2010 civil court complaint against BP, the United States contended that the disaster resulted in “lost lives, destroyed livelihoods, and grave harm to natural resources across several States and related waters.”
The incident also resulted in a significant decrease in tourism on Florida’s Gulf Coast, which tourism marketing organizations documented.
The oil rig’s destruction took place the first year that the Crystal Classic International Sand Sculpting Competition was conducted on Siesta Key, Smith told his commission colleagues. “We had to convince folks that we didn’t have oil on Siesta Key. So [such incidents do not] need to be in our backyard to affect us,” he pointed out.
“It’s extremely important for tourism, as well as the folks that live here in Florida and live on the beach and visit the beach, that we don’t put [the shoreline] in danger,” Smith said.
After Smith made a motion to include the issue among the others listed for the board’s 2026 federal legislative program, Commissioner Tom Knight seconded it.
“Tourism is so important to us here,” Knight added, “and, certainly, we don’t want to do anything to harm it …”
Then-Chair Joe Neunder told his colleagues, “I couldn’t agree more with protecting our coast, environment, water quality, tourism, etc. It is so vital for the economy of Florida.”
Lewis of Governmental Relations noted that the all of Florida’s members of the U.S. House and Senate are opposed to the Department of the Interior proposal.
The motion passed unanimously.
One local nonprofit organization has been working to encourage its members to oppose the federal plans, as well.
Leaders of the Siesta Key Condominium Council have sent out advisories to their approximately 7,000 households, providing links to general information about the Department of the Interior’s notice and other resources.
The Council’s most recent advisory stressed, “The Deadline to Comment is January 23, 2026.”
To submit comments, the advisory added, visit this link.