- President Biden has moved to ban offshore drilling on more than 625 million acres of land.
- The targeted areas are on the East and West coasts, in the Gulf of Mexico, and off Alaska.
- The ban will be hard to overturn, but President-elect Trump has already promised to do so.
President Trump returns to the White House later this month and his administration was said to be planning new and expanded drilling for oil and liquefied natural gas. This was expected to pave the way for increased operations on federal property as well as offshore.
However, President Biden has thrown a wrench into those plans by signing a “memorandum on the withdrawal of certain areas of the United States outer continental shelf from oil or natural gas leasing.” Citing public stewardship, climate change, and the possible harm to coastal areas and marine life, Biden banned leasing in a number of areas of the outer continental shelf.
The list is fairly extensive and includes the North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida in the east as well as the Washington/Oregon, Northern California, Central California, and Southern California sections in the west. The halt also extends to the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area off Alaska.
More: President-Elect Trump Set To Allow New And Expanded Drilling For Gas And Oil
There’s no expiration date, but Biden noted rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas aren’t affected. However, he said the move “prevents consideration of withdrawn areas for any future oil or natural gas leasing for purposes of exploration, development, or production.”
While the memorandum is full of government legalese, the White House released a statement from Biden saying he’s “taking action to protect the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from oil and natural gas drilling and the harm it can cause.”
He went on to say “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 went on to cite the Deepwater Horizon disaster and say “it is not worth the risks.”
Shell
The Department of the Interior filled in some of the blanks as they noted the memoranda withdraws more than 625 million acres of land. That’s the largest withdrawal in U.S. history, but the department noted oil production on federal lands and waters was at an all-time high last year.
In fiscal year 2023, the “Outer Continental Shelf produced approximately 675 million barrels of oil and 796 billion cubic feet of gas, accounting for roughly 14 percent of all oil production and two percent of natural gas production in the United States.” That sounds like a lot, but the government said nearly all production is done in the “Western and Central Gulf of Mexico, where industry has yet to produce on more than 80 percent of the 12 million acres already under lease.”
While inauguration day is just two weeks away, CNN noted the executive action is hard to reverse and would need congressional approval. Despite that obstacle, Trump promised to “unban it immediately.”
