Biden Will Ban New Oil Drilling Over Largest Stretch Of US Atlantic, Pacific Waters

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(Bloomberg) – President Joe Biden will issue an executive order banning new offshore oil and gas development on about 625 million acres of the US coast, ruling out the sale of drilling rights in Atlantic and Pacific waters and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. .

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The move represents a major effort to permanently protect coastal waters – and the communities that depend on them – from petroleum development and the risk of oil spills. At the same time, Biden is keeping the door open to oil and natural gas leases in the central and western Gulf of Mexico that have been drilled for decades and currently provide about 14% of the country’s production of that oil, it said. people familiar with the matter asked not to be identified because the decision had not yet reached the public.

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Biden’s decision, to be announced on Monday, will further fuel his climate credentials, deepening his record of promoting conservation and zero-emissions energy. It builds on a series of last-minute moves by the White House to protect land and protect the environment before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

White House spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment made outside regular business hours.

Unlike other measures Biden has taken to curb fossil fuel development and greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, this one could have a long-lasting impact, complicating Trump’s goal of boosting domestic oil and gas production.

That’s because Biden’s planned announcement is based on a 72-year-old provision of federal law that gives presidents broad discretion to withdraw US water from oil leases without expressly authorizing the withdrawal.

Presidents of both parties — including Trump — have called for similar legislation to protect coral reefs, feeding grounds for walruses and other American waters from Florida to Alaska. And while presidents have reversed decisions of predecessors to exempt areas from oil leases, courts have never upheld a complete reversal.

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Congressional Democrats and environmental groups have urged Biden to extend permanent protections against offshore drilling to protect vulnerable coastal communities, protect marine ecosystems from oil spills and fight climate change. Some environmental activists were divided at best, worried that too broad a declaration could jeopardize a legal instrument that has been used to protect special marine areas since 1953.

Yet the planned announcement is at once powerful and prudent – it indefinitely protects some areas that Republican and Democratic politicians have jointly pushed to keep from drilling without encroachment on the long-running Gulf of Mexico base for US oil and gas production.

This announcement will not affect excavation and other activities on existing leases. It also keeps the path open for Republican lawmakers to order more sales of oil leases in the central and western Gulf as a way to raise revenue that could offset the cost of the tax extension.

Earlier: Trump Ready ‘Within Seconds’ To Issue Orders To Encourage Drilling

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Environmentalists said Biden’s move ensures that oil companies will not be able to tap into the riches in the eastern Gulf and south Pacific that have long attracted the industry. They added that the protection is in response to growing public interest in limiting offshore oil drilling.

The president will be unveiling a “great ocean medal” and “contributing to a bipartisan tradition of protecting our coasts” by installing protections, said Joseph Gordon, campaign director for the environmental group Oceana.

Oil industry advocates say planned measures to limit US energy are possible, as the country stands on the cusp of an expected increase in demand for electricity in data centers, artificial intelligence and manufacturing. The development of offshore energy powers a long chain of economic activity that reaches far beyond US shores, they argue, and the oil and gas extracted in America produces less pollution that warms the planet than elsewhere around the world.

“Voters have made clear their views on the importance of American energy, yet the Biden administration’s misguided approach continues to undermine our nation’s energy,” said Dustin Meyer, senior vice president for policy at the American Petroleum Institute.

Trump could order a reversal of Biden’s actions, as he tried to reverse President Barack Obama’s resignation during his first term in office. But Trump’s previous attempt was rejected by a federal district court in 2019.

Also, some of the waters that Biden is targeting overlap with the area near Florida and the southeastern US where Trump himself temporarily withdrew from oil and gas leases during the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign. Trump’s waiver would otherwise expire in 2032.

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