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Joe Biden’s team is reportedly plotting a move on offshore drilling in some areas that President-elect Donald Trump won’t be able to undo.
Below is an excerpt from the New York Times: President Biden is expected to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling in large sections of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as other federal waters, in a way that could be difficult for the Trump administration to unwind, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Mr. Biden intends to invoke an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, that would give him wide latitude to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing, said the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the policy publicly.
The ban would be a significant victory for environmental advocates who have long argued that new drilling is inconsistent with the need to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil and gas that are dangerously warming the planet. The year that just ended was the hottest in recorded history.
The move would also cement Mr. Biden’s legacy on climate change as he prepares to leave the White House after a single term. President-elect Donald J. Trump has pledged to reverse virtually every law and regulation aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions, and to make it easier for companies to produce and burn more coal, oil and gas.
The Times notes that the 1953 law does not include language that would allow any future president to revoke a ban.
The law has already been tested, when Trump tried during his first term in office to revoke a drilling ban former president Barack Obama had initiated for parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean. A judge ruled that the ban could not be reversed without action from Congress.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton wrote, “In another leftist attack on the US economy and our nation’s energy supplies, whoever is running the Biden administration is preparing to issue a decree permanently banning new offshore oil and gas development in some US coastal waters.”
In another leftist attack on the US economy and our nation’s energy supplies, whoever is running the Biden administration is preparing to issue a decree permanently banning new offshore oil and gas development in some US coastal waters https://t.co/HXr103Lmb1
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) January 2, 2025
Biden Expected to Permanently Ban Oil Drilling in Some Federal Waters https://t.co/V9hHOtm5Ig
— Jenny Staletovich (@jenstaletovich) January 3, 2025
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