Biden bans offshore oil and gas drilling before Trump's term
The U.S. president Joe Biden has announced that he will ban all new offshore oil and natural gas development along the majority of U.S. coasts. This is a decision which President-elect Donald Trump who has pledged to increase domestic energy production may find hard to reverse.
Biden, according to the White House on Monday, will exercise his authority under 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in order to protect federal waters along the East and Western coasts of the United States as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico. He will also use this authority to protect portions of Alaska's northern Bering sea. The ban will cover 625 million acres (or 253 million hectares), of ocean.
Biden said that the move aligned both with his climate change agenda as well as his goal of conserving 30% of U.S. land and water by 2030.
He also cited the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico and said that the low drilling potential of areas included in this ban did not justifiable the risks to public health or economics of future leasing.
Biden stated in a press release that "my decision reflects what coastal residents, businesses and beachgoers know for a very long time, namely, that drilling offshore could cause irreversible damages to places we cherish and is not necessary to meet the energy needs of our nation." It is not worth the risk." Trump, who will take office at the end of this month, has promised to reverse Biden’s climate change and conservation policies. Biden's tenure saw him limit new oil and natural gas leasing on federal waters and lands, which drew criticism from companies and states that drill. A 2019 court ruling states that the Lands Act does not give presidents the authority to reverse previous bans. It allows them to withdraw certain areas from mineral drilling and leasing. This order was issued in response to Trump’s attempt to reverse the withdrawals from the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans that former President Barack Obama made at his end of presidency. Trump himself used the law in order to ban the sale of offshore drilling rights off the coast of Florida, on the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Biden's ruling will extend protection to the same area indefinitely. Karoline Leavitt of the Trump transition, speaking on X in New York, called Biden’s decision “disgraceful” and reiterated Trump’s campaign promise to increase U.S. Drilling, without providing details.
A trade group for the oil and gas industries said that this decision would undermine American energy security. Congress should reverse it.
In a press release, American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers stated that "we urge policymakers to utilize every tool available to them to reverse this political motivated decision and restore an American energy-friendly approach to federal leasing."
Oceana, an environmental group, called the decision a win for Americans who rely on clean coasts and fishing. Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon stated in a press release that "our treasured coastal communities have been safeguarded for the future." (Reporting and editing by Nichola Gordon; Christian Schmollinger, Chizu Nomiyama)
(source: Reuters)
