U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday banned offshore drilling across an immense area of coastal waters, weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, pledging to massively increase fossil fuel production.
The move is considered mostly symbolic, as it will not impact areas where oil and gas development is currently underway, and mainly covers zones where drillers have no important prospects, including in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The order will protect some 625 million acres of ocean along America’s Atlanticand Pacific coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Bering Sea from “environmental and economic risks and harms,” the White House said in a statement announcing the move.
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White House said on Monday that Biden will use his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
Biden said the move was aligned with both his efforts to combat climate change and his goal to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
He also invoked the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the low drilling potential of the areas included in the ban did not justify the public health and economic risks of future leasing.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement. “It is not worth the risks.”
Around 15% of U.S. oil production comes from federal offshore acreage, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico, a share that has been falling sharply in the last decade as drilling onshore booms, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The United States is now the world’s top oil and gas producer thanks to big increases in production from places like Texas and New Mexico, fueled by improved drilling technology and strong demand since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move is a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.
Upon learning about this move, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming press secretary, called the move by the Biden administration “disgraceful.”
“This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said. “Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
Trump himself has a complicated history on offshore drilling. He signed a memorandum in 2020 directing the Interior secretary to prohibit drilling in the waters off both Florida coasts, and off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina until 2032. That was after he initially moved to vastly expand offshore drilling, before retreating amid widespread opposition in Florida and other coastal states.
Trump has vowed to establish what he calls American “energy dominance” around the world as he seeks to boost U.S. oil and gas drilling and move away from Mr. Biden’s focus on climate change.
Environmental advocates hailed Mr. Biden’s action, saying new oil and gas drilling must be sharply curtailed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. 2024 was the hottest in recorded history.
“This is an epic ocean victory!” said Joseph Gordon, campaign director for the environmental group Oceana.
Gordon thanked Mr. Biden “for listening to the voices from coastal communities” that oppose drilling and “contributing to the bipartisan tradition of protecting our coasts.”
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