The White House has announced its latest eleventh-hour action to curb President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-oil agenda with an executive order banning new oil and gas drilling in some federal waters.
The last-minute executive order comes two weeks before Trump is set to take office and on the same day that Congress is set to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election.
President Joe Biden said Monday that he was invoking his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a 1953 law that controls developments for offshore oil and gas drilling. The law contains one particular provision that allows the president to permanently protect federal waters from future leasing and, therein, future drilling. It does not include language detailing whether future presidents can walk back those protections.
In his order, Biden is banning new drilling off the entire East Coast and the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington state. Drilling is also to be barred in some areas off of Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The order does not impact current leases or drilling operations and does not target regions considered to be the drilling hubs for the industry, such as the western and central regions of the Gulf of Mexico.
“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,” the president said in a statement.
“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” Biden added.
The order protects more than 625 million acres from future drilling operations.
Trump, who vowed to “drill, baby, drill” during his next administration, has promised to reverse the protections but will likely face difficulty doing so.
The Republican attempted to end similar protections during his first term that were implemented by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. At the time, Obama had banned offshore drilling in some regions of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. In 2019, a U.S. district judge ruled against Trump, saying only Congress would be able to revoke such a ban.
However, that ruling does not seem to have deterred the incoming president, who told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Monday morning, “I see it just came over that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately.”
Trump went on to insist he has “the right” to reverse the protections but did not offer up any more detail as to how he would undo the Biden executive order.
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also blasted the move Monday, telling the Hill, “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, as we will drill, baby, drill.”
While the order does not affect current drilling operations and primarily affects areas without current leases, industry groups have also condemned the ban.
“The decision to unilaterally block areas from future offshore oil and gas development is a strategic error, driven not by science or voter mandate, but by political motives,” National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito said in a statement. “This move directly undermines American energy consumers and jeopardizes the vast benefits tied to a thriving domestic energy sector.”
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American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers agreed with that sentiment, saying, “Congress and the incoming administration should fully leverage the nation’s vast offshore resources as a critical source of affordable energy, government revenue and stability around the world. 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.”
Meanwhile, environmentalists and climate activists have rallied behind the Biden administration’s protections, pointing to the impacts increased drilling would have on global greenhouse gas emissions.
“This is an epic ocean victory!” Joseph Gordon, campaign director for Oceana, told the Associated Press.