In an attempt to thwart any potential move by the incoming Trump administration to increase offshore drilling, President Joe Biden is taking last-minute steps to prohibit new offshore oil and gas drilling in the majority of U.S. coastal waters.
In order to prevent future oil and natural gas leasing in offshore areas around the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and parts of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea, Biden, whose tenure ends in two weeks, said he is utilizing his authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
“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, echoing what beachgoers, businesses, and coastal communities have long recognized.
Now is the time to save these shores for our kids and grandkids, he said, as the climate crisis continues to endanger cities nationwide and we move toward a sustainable energy economy.
Laptops 1000Large portions of the Gulf of Mexico, where the majority of offshore drilling in the United States takes place, would not be impacted by Biden’s directives; but, they would shield the beaches of Florida, California, and other states from further drilling.
President-elect Donald Trump may find it challenging to reverse Biden’s moves, which safeguard over 625 million acres of federal waters, as they would probably need to be repealed by a congressional act.
Trump has a convoluted past when it comes to offshore drilling.
In 2020, he signed a memorandum instructing the secretary of the Interior to ban drilling in the waters off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, as well as off the shores of both Florida, until 2032.
Trump said Monday that “it’ll be changed on day one” following his inauguration on January 20. I can alter it.
“We can’t let that happen to our country,” he said, referring to restricting drilling, adding that the United States has “oil and gas at a level that nobody else has and we’re going to take advantage of it.”
Trump declared, “It’s our greatest economic asset.”
Following Trump’s first push to significantly increase offshore drilling before backing off in the face of strong resistance in Florida and other coastal counties, Biden took action.
To increase U.S. oil and gas production and divert attention from Biden’s focus on climate change, Trump has pledged to achieve what he terms American “energy dominance” globally.
Environmentalists applauded Biden’s move, arguing that to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, new oil and gas drilling needs to be drastically reduced. The hottest year on record was 2024.
Joseph Gordon, campaign director for the environmental organization Oceana, declared, “This is an ocean victory of epic proportions.”
Gordon praised Biden for “contributing to the bipartisan tradition of protecting our coasts” and “listening to the voices from coastal communities” that are against drilling.
Gordon added that tens of millions of Americans live along the U.S. coastlines, which sustain billions of dollars in economic activity that depends on a healthy environment, a wealth of wildlife, and healthy fisheries.
He said that Biden’s actions build on the legacy of Democratic and Republican presidents to protect coastal water from offshore drilling.
Biden stated that it is evident from weighing the various uses of America’s seas that the regions he is removing from fossil fuel usage have “relatively minimal potential,” which does not outweigh the potential hazards to the environment, public health, and economy that additional leasing and drilling could pose.
Hewitt’s remarks came after Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, mocked the idea that “Joe Biden wants high gas prices to be his legacy.”
“A shameful decision intended to exact political retribution on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices,” Leavitt described Biden’s behavior. Don’t worry, we’ll drill, baby, drill, and Joe Biden will fail.
As he attempts to balance the interests of energy companies looking to increase oil and gas production and environmental activists who want him to stop new offshore drilling in the fight against climate change, Biden has suggested up to three oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico but none in Alaska.
In 2025, 2027, and 2029, offshore sales are planned as part of a five-year drilling plan that was approved in 2023.
The Democratic administration is legally required to conduct at least three lease sales to continue developing offshore wind production.
According to a 2022 climate law, the government cannot provide offshore wind leases until it offers at least 60 million acres (24.2 million hectares) of offshore oil and gas leases in a year.
Biden, who has previously restricted offshore drilling in other parts of Alaska and the Arctic Ocean, was strongly criticized by environmental groups for allowing the massive Willow oil project in Alaska.
