WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Monday took sweeping action to permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, protecting more than 625 million federal acres from future leasing.
But President-elect Donald Trump vowed he will work to reverse the ban, calling Biden’s 11th-hour move “ridiculous” and promising to “unban it immediately.”
Biden, two weeks before his term ends, issued two presidential memoranda under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit offshore drilling off the entire U.S. Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast in the continental U.S., and portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
“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.”
Biden pointed to a “climate crisis” threatening communities and the nation’s transition to a “clean energy economy,” adding that “now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.” 2024 was the hottest year on record, which scientists attribute to the burning of fossil fuels.
The ban does not affect areas where oil and gas development is currently underway, nor are there immediate plans for major drilling projects in the affected areas.
Biden is set to discuss the move Tuesday during a visit to California, which has had a moratorium on issuing new oil and natural gas leases in its state waters since 1969 and hasn’t had an oil lease approved off its coast since 1984.
