According to the Interior Department's
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), state waters extend three miles off a state's "submerged lands boundary" in most cases, and beyond that boundary, the federal government can put oceanic area up for lease. After a particularly devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, Congress amended the rules that permit federal leasing of the outer continental shelf, requiring "a detailed environmental review before any major or controversial federal action" and creating the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), which allows states to review any federal action that could affect their coasts.
According to Holly Doremus, a professor of environmental regulation at UC Berkeley Law, the CZMA would be key to any state's challenge of a federal lease off its shoreline.
Under that Act, states have the right to demand that federal actions be consistent with state plans, which can disqualify certain leases from the auction block.
Trump proposed a massive expansion of offshore drilling—what can states do?