(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will ban new offshore oil and gas exploration ventures along most of the U.S. coast, a decision that President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to increase domestic energy production, may have difficulty reversing.
The White House said Monday that Biden will use his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect all federal waters on the East and West Coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and parts of the North of the Bering Sea in Alaska. The ban will affect 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of ocean.
Biden said the move was in line with his climate change agenda and goal of conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
He also mentioned the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the low drilling potential of areas included in the ban did not justify the economic and public health risks of future leasing.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have long known: that drilling on these coasts can cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our country’s energy needs.” , Biden said in a statement. “The risks are not worth it.”
The announcement came as Trump pledged to reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies when he takes office later this month. During his term, Biden limited new oil and gas concessions on federal lands and waters, drawing criticism from states and companies in the sector.
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But the Land Act, which allows presidents to withdraw areas from mineral concessions and drilling, does not give them the legal authority to overturn previous bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. That order came in response to Trump’s effort to reverse the withdrawals from the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean made by former President Barack Obama at the end of his presidency.
Even Trump used the law to ban the sale of offshore drilling rights in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida until 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area without an expiration date.
An oil and gas industry trade group said the decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.
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“We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing,” American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers said in a statement.
The environmental group Oceana called the decision a victory for Americans who depend on clean coastlines and fisheries.
“Our precious coastal communities are now protected for future generations,” Oceana campaign director Joseph Gordon said in a statement.
