Biden bans offshore oil and gas on 625 million acres

And how can Trump undo it?

Happy Monday! I had some interesting comments on this piece at Center of the American Experiment. I’m genuinely not sure what Mr. Trump will have to do to get the offshore drilling ban rescinded. Will he need Congress, as news reports claimed last week? Executive order? What do Montalbano Mondays readers think?

With just two weeks left to go in his presidency, President Biden today issued an offshore drilling ban in 625 million acres of Atlantic and Pacific ocean. While the Gulf of Mexico will be largely unaffected, the ban will apply to the entire West Coast and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.

Mr. Biden is using “his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act,” to ban drilling on all federal waters off of the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of the Bering Sea. The specific section of the Lands Act, section 12(a), reads that the president “may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.”

It’s a broad clause that Mr. Biden has taken to mean taking off the table indefinitely the “North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida Planning Areas,” and “Washington/Oregon, Northern California, Central California, and Southern California.” The press releases state that a map of the withdrawn areas “will be made available” but did not seem to be published at the time of this writing.

Mr. Biden’s statement says:

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. It is not worth the risks. As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren…

In Alaska, dozens of Tribes have fought to protect the Northern Bering Sea, a vital ocean ecosystem that supports their traditional ways of life. Vice President Harris and I have listened. In balancing the many uses and benefits of America’s ocean, it is clear to me that the relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am withdrawing do not justify the environmental, public health, and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling.

Reuters reports that on the Hugh Hewitt radio program, Mr. Trump said “It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately. I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately.”

That may be easier said than done, as the Supreme Court in 2019 found that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does not grant presidents the authority to overturn prior bans. Unless that were reconsidered, it’s likely that Mr. Trump would need to wrangle Congress into acting to reverse the bans.

This piece was originally published at Center of the American Experiment on January 6, 2025.