Biden bans offshore drilling across US coasts before Trump’s handover

US President Joe Biden on Monday imposed a ban on offshore drilling across a vast expanse of coastal waters, a move made just weeks before Donald Trump takes office, vowing to boost fossil fuel production.

The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast off California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as part of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

According to a White House statement, the ban protects over 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of ocean.

“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and as we transition to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” Biden said.

He added, “In balancing the many uses and benefits of America’s oceans, 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.”

The ban does not include an end date and could present legal and political challenges for Trump, who has pledged to reverse policies aimed at curbing fossil fuel production.

Biden enacted the ban under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which grants the federal government authority over offshore resource exploitation.

However, the law does not clearly allow presidents to unilaterally undo a drilling ban without involving Congress.

During his campaign, Trump promised to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production to lower gas prices, despite the country already seeing record levels of extraction.

After US media reported on Biden’s plans for the ban, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming press secretary, criticised the move, calling it “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.”

Environmental groups, however, applauded the decision. Joseph Gordon, Oceana’s Climate and Energy Director, called it “an epic ocean victory,” adding, “Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”

With this move, Biden has conserved more than 670 million acres of US lands, waters, and ocean—more than any other president in history, according to the White House.

This ban is the latest in a series of climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.

In mid-December, the outgoing administration set a new climate goal under the Paris Agreement, committing the US to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035, aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050.

AFP

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