WASHINGTON — President Biden is transferring to ban new offshore oil and fuel drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, a last-minute effort to dam doable motion by the incoming Trump administration to broaden offshore drilling.
Biden, whose time period expires in two weeks, stated he’s utilizing authority underneath the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to guard offshore areas alongside the East and West coasts, the jap Gulf of Mexico and parts of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and pure fuel 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 stated in a press release.
“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,” he stated.
Biden’s orders wouldn’t have an effect on massive swaths of the Gulf of Mexico, the place most U.S. offshore drilling happens, however it might defend coastlines alongside California, Florida and different states from future drilling.
Biden’s actions, which defend greater than 625 million acres of federal waters, could possibly be troublesome for President-elect Donald Trump to unwind, since they might possible require an act of Congress to repeal. Trump himself has an advanced historical past on offshore drilling.
He signed a memorandum in 2020 directing the Inside secretary to ban drilling within the waters off each Florida coasts, and off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina till 2032.
The motion got here after Trump initially moved to vastly broaden offshore drilling, earlier than retreating amid widespread opposition in Florida and different coastal states.
Trump has vowed to ascertain what he calls American “energy dominance” around the globe as he seeks to spice up U.S. oil and fuel drilling and transfer away from Biden’s give attention to local weather change.
Environmental advocates hailed Biden’s motion, saying new oil and fuel drilling have to be sharply curtailed to scale back greenhouse fuel emissions that contribute to international warming. 2024 was the hottest in recorded historical past.
“This is an epic ocean victory!” stated Joseph Gordon, marketing campaign director for the environmental group Oceana.
Gordon thanked Biden “for listening to the voices from coastal communities” that oppose drilling and “contributing to the bipartisan tradition of protecting our coasts.”
Biden’s actions construct on the legacy of Democratic and Republican presidents to guard coastal water from offshore drilling, Gordon stated, including that U.S. coastlines are house to tens of hundreds of thousands of People and help billions of {dollars} of financial exercise that depend upon a clear setting, ample wildlife and thriving fisheries.
In balancing a number of makes use of of America’s oceans, Biden stated it was clear that the areas he’s withdrawing from fossil gasoline use present “relatively minimal potential” that doesn’t justify doable environmental, public well being and financial dangers that might come from new leasing and drilling.
A spokeswoman for Trump mocked Biden, saying, “Joe Biden clearly wants high gas prices to be his legacy.”
The spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, referred to as Biden’s motion “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.”
Biden has proposed as much as three oil and fuel lease gross sales within the Gulf of Mexico, however none in Alaska, as he tries to navigate between vitality corporations looking for higher oil and fuel manufacturing and environmental activists who need him to close down new offshore drilling within the combat towards local weather change.
A five-year drilling plan permitted in 2023 contains proposed offshore gross sales in 2025, 2027 and 2029. The three lease gross sales are the minimal quantity the Democratic administration may legally supply if it needs to proceed increasing offshore wind growth.
Underneath the phrases of a 2022 local weather legislation, the federal government should supply a minimum of 60 million acres (24.2 million hectares) of offshore oil and fuel leases in any one-year interval earlier than it might probably supply offshore wind leases.
Biden, whose choice to approve the large Willow oil undertaking in Alaska drew robust condemnation from environmental teams, has beforehand restricted offshore drilling in different areas of Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.
