BIDEN BANS OIL DRILLING IN U.S. ATLANTIC, PACIFIC OCEANS

President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risk” and “not necessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs.

Biden’s move is enshrined in a pair of presidential memos to be released Monday, allowing him to cement his legacy on conservation and fighting climate change just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. But unlike other measures Biden has taken to curb fossil fuel development, the move will be harder for Trump to reverse because it relies on a 72-year-old provision of federal law that gives presidents the power to withdraw oil and gas leases from U.S. waters without express authorization for cancellation.

Biden is banning future oil and gas leases along the U.S. East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the northern Bering Sea, which is home to seabirds, marine mammals, fish and other wildlife that indigenous peoples have depended on for millennia. The action does not affect energy development under existing offshore leases or prevent the sale of additional drilling rights in Alaska’s gas-rich Cook Inlet or the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which together account for about 14 percent of U.S. oil and gas production.

The president described the move as a careful balance between environmental conservation and energy security.

“It is clear to me that the relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am removing does not justify the environmental, health and economic risks that new leasing and drilling will pose,” Biden said. “We do not have to choose between protecting the environment and growing the economy, or between maintaining the health of our oceans, the resilience of our coasts and the security of our food, and maintaining low energy prices.”

Some of the areas Biden championed had already been stripped of oil and gas leasing by Trump in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign. But the incoming president’s protections for waters along Florida’s west coast and the southeastern United States were set to expire in 2032, while Biden will make them permanent.

Trump’s transition team has criticized the plan, with spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt calling it “a shameful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump the mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices.”

“Joe Biden clearly wants high gas prices to be his legacy,” she said in an emailed statement. “Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail and we will drill, drill, drill.”

Trump could issue an executive order ending such bans immediately after taking office, as he did in 2017, when President Barack Obama terminated his powers. However, a federal district court in Alaska rejected the overturning of Trump’s order, and no appeals court has yet ruled on the issue.

Republican and Democratic politicians in coastal states are pushing to keep some of the affected waters free from drilling, especially off Florida and along the West Coast of the United States. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 10 people and spilled millions of barrels of oil, demonstrated that offshore drilling poses ongoing risks, especially for coastal communities whose economies are intertwined with tourism.

“We are pleased and grateful that the Biden administration recognizes the tremendous value of Florida’s Gulf Coast,” said Martha Collins, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Healthy Gulf. “From white-sand beaches to vibrant marine life, the Gulf Coast defines a way of life enjoyed by millions of people,” and “today’s decision will help protect this special area from industrial oil and gas operations.”

Industry Reaction

Oil industry leaders condemned the move, saying the widespread restrictions — even in areas not currently of interest for drilling — undermine the nation’s energy potential.

Such bans “threaten our economic and national security by creating political barriers to our resources,” said Eric Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. “Even if there is no immediate interest in some areas, it is critical that the federal government remain flexible to adjust its energy policy, especially in response to unexpected global changes such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The U.S. oil industry has long lobbied to expand offshore opportunities, where wells that tap conventional reserves can produce oil for decades, unlike the small jackpots of onshore shale development. But there is a long chain of events between the initial sale of an offshore site and eventual production.

There are no active oil and gas fields in federal waters in the Bering Sea or on the U.S. East Coast, where Biden is protecting about 334 million acres from Canada to the southern tip of Florida. About four dozen wells were drilled off the U.S. East Coast in the 1970s and 1980s, but leases were last sold in 1983 and oil has never been produced in the region.

Oil companies own about a dozen tracts in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and about 30 tracts in federal waters near Southern California, where tracts were last sold in 1984. The withdrawal will not affect them.

The U.S. government currently plans to hold only three auctions for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico over the next five years, under an anemic plan put in place by the Biden administration. Republicans in Congress are considering mandating more sales as a way to generate revenue that could offset the cost of extending tax breaks.