President Donald Trump's Interior Department released a five-year offshore drilling plan on Thursday that would open up vast parts of California's coastline to drilling, which hasn't happened in that state since the late 1960s. The Department is also proposing new oil drilling in parts of the Eastern Gulf — located approximately 100 nautical miles off Florida's coast — a decision previously opposed by Florida's Republican leadership.
The Trump administration's proposal would also open the Eastern Gulf to federal oil drilling auctions starting in 2029. It would open auctions for drilling in central and southern California in 2027 and northern California in 2029.
The oil industry has been advocating for opening up parts of the Eastern Gulf that are adjacent to areas where oil production has been happening for decades in the Central Gulf, an industry source told CNN.
The proposal is sure to be met with resistance in California. The state's coast has not seen drilling since a devastating oil spill in 1969, which drew national attention for destroying coastal wildlife and the state's fishing industry.
The Gulf action will be closely scrutinized in Florida, too, where memories of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill still shape public opinion. During Trump's first term, the state's congressional delegation — including Republicans — repeatedly pushed back against attempts to open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling. Gov. Ron DeSantis has also opposed offshore exploration. The first Trump administration extended the offshore drilling ban for the Eastern Gulf, rather than opening it up.
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📷: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Sustainable construction is transitioning from concept to systemic implementation, where water management, land scarcity and resource efficiency are dictating the principles of sustainable building design. Developers across the US Mountain West are applying whole life carbon assessment and lifecycle assessment methodologies to guide construction that reflects environmental sustainability in construction practice. These models prioritise embodied carbon reduction, low carbon design and life cycle cost optimisation to enhance building lifecycle performance and ensure projects achieve measurable sustainability outcomes.
Corporate redevelopment pipelines are shifting toward net zero carbon buildings, integrating eco‑design for buildings and sustainable building practices that embed resource efficiency in construction processes. The large‑scale modernisation of major technology campuses demonstrates that sustainable architecture informed by whole life carbon and embodied carbon in materials can deliver both operational excellence and long‑term value. Strategic procurement of renewable building materials and implementation of low embodied carbon materials are reinforcing circular economy in construction models that support carbon footprint reduction and circular construction strategies.
The housing sector is adopting sustainable material specification principles, with mixed‑income and high‑performance developments achieving BREEAM and BREEAM v7 standards while addressing whole life performance. Such schemes align with life cycle thinking in construction, proving that environmental product declarations (EPDs) and low carbon building methods can achieve both affordability and environmental credibility.
Post‑disaster rebuilding efforts in Indian townships are revealing the cost-effectiveness of nature‑based planning and green infrastructure compared to reactive reconstruction. Investments in eco‑friendly construction are highlighting that resilience demands integration of circular economy principles and decarbonising the built environment.
Amid uneven global decarbonisation, supply chains are evolving to accommodate low carbon construction materials and net zero whole life carbon benchmarks. The most competitive teams are uniting green construction and sustainable urban development approaches that measure the environmental impact of construction and demonstrate continual carbon footprint of construction reduction. By embedding circular economy frameworks into the design, delivery and end‑of‑life reuse in construction, the sector is progressing toward authentic carbon neutral construction and a built environment driven by sustainability and long‑term performance.
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