Trump Trade: President considers opening California to offshore drilling

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.

OFFSHORE DRILLING: The Trump administration is drafting a plan to resume offshore oil drilling along California’s coast for the first time in decades, The Washington Post’s Jake Spring and Evan Halper report. The proposal includes six potential lease sales from 2027 to 2030 and signals strong federal support and possible funding for Sable Offshore’s (SOC) Santa Ynez Project in federal waters. Other publicly traded companies in the space include Baker Hughes (BKR), Halliburton (HAL), Nabors Industries (NBR), Noble Corp. (NE), SLB (SLB), Transocean (RIG) and Weatherford (WFRD).

Roth Capital expects shares of Sable Offshore to react positively to the Washington Post’s report that the Trump administration is preparing a proposal to open up offshore oil drilling along California’s coast for the first time in decades. The Trump administration’s support of oil drilling off the coast of California “shows clear support” for Sable’s Santa Ynez project off the coast of California in federal waters and indicates that federal funding for the project is “still clearly an option,” the analyst tells investors in a research note. Roth has a Buy rating on the shares with a $22 price target.

HIGH POWER PRICES: Senator Bernie Sanders and several Democratic senators are pressing the White House over rising electric bills, which they partly attribute to the energy demands of AI data centers, The Wall Street Journal’s David Uberti reports. In a letter to the administration and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the lawmakers criticized major tech firms, including Meta (META), OpenAI, Alphabet (GOOGL), and Oracle (ORCL), for driving massive power consumption through rapid data-center expansion. They argue that President Trump’s efforts to fast-track these projects are creating “bidding wars” with utilities and raising household energy costs. “The point is not to stop the data centers but make sure the costs are borne by the gigantic companies that create them, and that electricity prices are checked or even reduced,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said in an interview. “What we need is some federal safeguards and oversight.”

RARE EARTH MATERIALS: China plans to restrict the flow of rare earths and other materials to the U.S. by creating a system that will exclude companies with ties to the U.S. military while fast-tracking export approvals to other companies, Jon Emont and Raffaele Huang of The Wall Street Journal report. citing people familiar with the matter. The “validated end-user” system would allow China to follow through on Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s pledge to President Trump to facilitate the export of rare-earth materials while preventing them from ending up with U.S. military suppliers, the sources added. The Fly notes that companies involved in the development and mining of rare earth minerals include Nova Minerals (NVA), Ioneer (IONR), Lynas Rare Earths (LYSCF), MP Materials (MP), Energy Fuels (UUUU), NioCorp (NB) and VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX).