The United States has announced plans to open much of the country’s coastal waters to oil and gas drilling. The Interior Department released the five-year plan last week. It is much more expansive than one suggested by President Donald Trump in April of last year. The Interior Department proposed to publicly sell 47 possible drilling rights in much of the U.S. continental shelf. That is a large increase from the 11 lease sales during the presidency of Barack Obama. The draft of the plan would permit the sale of drilling leases in 25 of 26 offshore planning areas. The one area identified as off-limits is the waters near Alaska’s far-western Aleutian Islands. The area was given special protection by former President George W. Bush. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters last week that the United States is, in his words, “going to become the strongest energy superpower this world has ever known.”