President Joe Biden will ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in more than 625 million acres of federal waters, the White House announced Monday, striking a final blow against domestic energy production just two weeks before President elect Donald Trump takes office.
The outgoing president is set to use his authority under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East Coast, West Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and gas leasing. Cast as a way to preserve the fishing and tourism industries in the affected states, these steps do not expire.
“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,” Biden said in a statement.
“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.”
The move comes on the same day that Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris is set to be certified by Congress. Trump has vowed to increase oil and gas production on a simple three-word energy policy: “Drill, baby, drill.” Biden’s latest action, however, poses an obstacle to the incoming president’s energy plans.
Asked about the ban during a Monday radio interview, Trump told host Hugh Hewitt he would “unban it immediately.”
“It’s really our greatest economic asset,” Trump said.
Established 72 years ago, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act governs energy leasing activities in submerged lands under U.S. jurisdiction that extend three miles beyond the shoreline. An open-ended provision in federal law gives a president the authority to permanently withdraw portions of the Outer Continental Shelf without providing a way for a succeeding president to reverse course.
Therefore, the solution may not be as simple as Trump signing an executive order on his first day in office to undo the action. Congress would need to take legislative action. Or if Trump decides to revoke Biden’s withdrawal, that action may prompt legal challenges.
Though his hands are tied in this case, Trump could potentially use his executive power to kill offshore wind sites as he promised during his 2024 campaign.
The Republican has cited the alarming number of whale deaths as rationale for pulling the plug on the offshore wind industry. Though researchers are hesitant to attribute those environmental harms to offshore wind, residents who live in communities near these sites are very much concerned about the well-being of the marine mammals, particular North Atlantic Right Whales.
The species has been experiencing an unusual mortality event since 2017, the National Marine Fisheries Service recently said. At least 41 have died in those eight years, though research suggests the death toll is likely much higher as only one third of right whale deaths are documented. It’s estimated there are 370 right whales remaining, including 70 reproductively active females.
Biden previously used the authority granted under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in January 2021, when he first took office, and March 2023 to block the entire Arctic Ocean from oil and gas drilling. With Monday’s action, his administration is set to conserve over 670 million acres of U.S. lands, waters, and oceans, the White House noted.
In making his decision, Biden cited the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that killed eleven drill workers and spilled 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of 87 days. He suggested the catastrophe could have been avoided.
The incident “is a solemn reminder of the costs and risks of offshore drilling to the health and resilience of our coasts and fisheries and underscores the importance of the legal protections I am putting in place today,” the president said.
The oil disaster is also partly why he has made a concerted effort to boost the offshore wind industry. In the past four years, the Democratic administration approved eleven commercial-scale offshore wind projects as part of its goal to reach 30 gigawatts of energy generated by the renewable energy source by 2030.
An offshore wind farm off the coast of Maryland, the tenth project of its kind which was approved in September, marked the administration’s halfway point in reaching the ambitious climate goal.
In response to the White House’s announcement, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, "Joe Biden clearly wants high gas prices to be his legacy."
She called Biden’s action "a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill."
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