https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/06/business/biden-offshore-drilling-ban-
trump/index.html

President Joe Biden on Monday announced an executive action that will
permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a way that could be especially difficult
for the incoming Trump administration to undo.

Biden�s executive action will ban new oil and gas leasing across 625
million acres of US ocean. The ban will prevent oil companies from leasing
waters for new drilling along the entire East Coast, the eastern Gulf of
Mexico, the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, and portions of
Alaska�s Northern Bering Sea.

�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.�

The action, which CNN reported on Friday, invokes the 1953 Outer
Continental Shelf Lands Act, a law that gives presidents broad authority
to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and
development.

The law does not give presidents explicit authority to revoke the action
and place federal waters back into development, meaning President-elect
Donald Trump would have to get Congress to change it before he could
reverse Biden�s move.

Nevertheless, Trump on Monday said in an interview he would try to undo
the action.

�Look, it�s ridiculous. I�ll unban it immediately,� Trump said in a radio
interview on �The Hugh Hewitt Show.�

As Biden�s presidency draws to a close, environmental and climate groups
have advocated for him to withdraw areas off the Eastern Gulf of Mexico,
as well as other parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans � giving the
areas permanent protections from future drilling. The move would guard
against future oil spills and against adding more planet-warming pollution
from fossil fuels to the atmosphere.

�President Biden�s new protections add to this bipartisan history,
including President Trump�s previous�withdrawals in the southeastern
United States in 2020,� said Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon in a
statement. �Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for
future generations.�

Despite a friendly posture towards the oil and gas industry, Trump also
moved to ban offshore drilling while president. After proposing a major
expansion in offshore drilling early in his first term, Trump in 2020
extended a ban on future oil drilling in the Eastern Gulf and expanded it
to include the Atlantic coasts of three states: Florida, Georgia and South
Carolina.

Still, Trump�s incoming press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, lambasted the
decision, writing in a post on X, �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. Rest assured, Joe
Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.�

The oil industry lashed out against the executive action, too.

�President Biden�s decision to ban new offshore oil and natural gas
development across approximately 625 million acres of US coastal and
offshore waters is significant and catastrophic,� Ron Neal, chairman of
the Independent Petroleum Association of America Offshore Committee, said
in a statement. �It represents a major attack on the oil and natural gas
industry.�

Neal said the ban would severely limit the industry�s potential for future
oil and gas exploration in new areas, hurting the industry�s long-term
ability to survive.

But Biden noted in his statement that protecting coastlines from offshore
drilling has bipartisan support.

�From California to Florida, Republican and Democratic Governors, Members
of Congress, and coastal communities alike have worked and called for
greater protection of our ocean and coastlines from harms that offshore
oil and natural gas drilling can bring,� Biden said.

He argued that after the devastating 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the
Gulf of Mexico, the ban he imposed will help protect similar ecological
disasters from happening again.

�Every president this century has recognized that some areas of the ocean
are just too risky or too sensitive to drill,� Earthjustice vice president
of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans Drew Caputo said in a
statement Friday.

Biden�s move was first reported by Bloomberg.

Little economic impact
Energy analysts told CNN the move won�t make much of a difference in US
oil production, which has set new records under Biden.

It�s �not particularly consequential for US exploration and production
going forward,� Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price
Information Service, said on Friday. Kloza noted there are plenty of
existing offshore rigs pumping oil in the Gulf of Mexico and added that
offshore projects typically take 6-8 years to come online.

�I don�t see it as having any real impact on US supply, exports, imports,�
Kloza said.

Biden agreed, arguing in his statement that preserving the environment and
the coastlines will help local economies flourish.

�We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing
our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines
resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices
low,� Biden said. �Those are false choices.�

Still, the American Petroleum Institute blasted Biden�s decision.

�American voters sent a clear message in support of domestic energy
development, and yet the current administration is using its final days in
office to cement a record of doing everything possible to restrict it,�
API CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement. �We urge policymakers to use
every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated
decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.�

In a separate announcement, the Biden administration is expected to
declare two new national monuments in California in the coming week, a
source familiar with the planning told CNN.

Biden will establish the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern
California near Joshua Tree National Park and the S�tt�tla National
Monument in Northern California, the source said. Native tribes have been
actively pushing the administration to protect the land from energy
development.

Biden has so far conserved or expanded 10 national monuments as president.

--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.