ICYMI
Biden bans new drilling in US coastal waters weeks before Trump handover
Oliver Milman
Mon, January 6, 2025
THE GUARDIAN
Off-shore oil platform in the Santa Barbara channel, off Ventura, California.Photograph: Russ Bishop/Alamy
Joe Biden has banned offshore drilling across an immense area of coastal waters, weeks before Donald Trump takes office pledging to massively increase fossil fuel production.
The US president’s ban encompasses the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington, and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
A White House statement said the declaration protected more than 253m hectares (625m acres) of waters. Trump said he would “unban it immediately” as soon as he re-enters the White House on 20 January, although it is unclear whether he will be able to do this easily.
Related: Biden administration warns natural gas expansion would drive up domestic costs
“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,” Biden said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
Scientists are clear that oil and gas production must be radically cut to avoid disastrous climate impacts. The ban does not have an end date and could be legally – and politically – tricky for Trump to overturn.
Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which gives the federal government authority over the exploitation of offshore resources. A total of eight presidents have withdrawn territory from drilling under the act, including Trump himself who barred oil and gas extraction off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
However, the law does not expressly provide for presidents to unilaterally reverse a drilling ban without going through Congress.
Despite this, Trump vowed to undo Biden’s move, with the president-elect’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, calling it “a disgraceful decision” and saying the incoming administration would “drill, baby, drill”.
In an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, Trump said the rule would be overturned on his first day. “I will unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it.”
Environmental groups, on the other hand, welcomed the decision. “This is an epic ocean victory!” said Joseph Gordon, climate and energy director at the conservation non-profit Oceana. “Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”
“Americans on both sides of the aisle support protecting our oceans from big oil giveaways,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action. “President Biden’s bold action today underscores that we cannot afford the continued expansion of oil and gas production if we are to meet our climate targets and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.”
The White House said: “With today’s withdrawals, President Biden has now conserved more than 670m acres of US lands, waters, and ocean – more than any president in history.
The move is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration before Trump’s return to the White House.
In mid-December, the outgoing administration issued an ambitious new climate target under the landmark Paris accord, committing the US to reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by between 61% and 66% below 2005 levels by 2035, on the path to achieving net zero by 2050. Trump is expected to ignore this target, and remove the US from the Paris climate deal.
Biden is also expected to announce two new national monuments – protected lands designated at the discretion of the president – in California before he leaves office. When last in office, Trump shrank the size of two previously established national monuments in Utah.
The outgoing Biden administration has styled itself as as historic leader in environmental policy, passing sweeping legislation to bolster clean energy output and electric vehicle uptake, although the president has also overseen a record boom in oil and gas production and handed out drilling leases at a higher rate even than Trump.
Climate advocates have urged Biden to declare a climate emergency and reverse the growing export of gas from US-based shipping terminals before Trump’s new term.
Agence France-Presse contributed reporting
Biden Bars Offshore Oil Drilling in US Atlantic and Pacific
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
BLOOMBERG
Mon, January 6, 2025
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking offshore oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of US coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risks” and “unnecessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs.
Biden’s move is enshrined in a pair of presidential memoranda being issued Monday, burnishing his legacy on conservation and fighting climate change just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Yet unlike other actions Biden has taken to constrain fossil fuel development, this one could be harder for Trump to unwind, since it’s rooted in a 72-year-old provision of federal law that empowers presidents to withdraw US waters from oil and gas leasing without explicitly authorizing revocations.
Biden is ruling out future oil and gas leasing along the US East and West Coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and a sliver of the Northern Bering Sea — an area teeming with seabirds, marine mammals, fish and other wildlife that indigenous people have depended on for millennia. The action doesn’t affect energy development under existing offshore leases, and it won’t prevent the sale of more drilling rights in Alaska’s gas-rich Cook Inlet or the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which together provide about 14% of US oil and gas production.
The president cast the move as achieving a careful balance between conservation and energy security.
“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,” Biden said in a statement. “We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient and the food they produce secure — and keeping energy prices low.”
Some of the areas Biden is protecting were already withdrawn from oil and gas leasing by Trump during the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign. But the incoming president’s protections for waters hugging Florida’s west coast and the southeast US were set to expire in 2032, whereas Biden is making them permanent.
Trump on Monday vowed to reverse Biden’s actions as soon as he takes office.
“I’ll un-ban it immediately,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show. “I have the right to un-ban it immediately. What’s he doing? Why is he doing it?”
Trump could issue an order revoking the designations as soon as he’s inaugurated, just as he did with President Barack Obama’s withdrawals in 2017. Yet an Alaska-based federal district court rejected Trump’s reversal, and no appeals court has ever ruled on the matter.
Republican and Democratic politicians from coastal states have pushed to keep some of the affected waters free from drilling, especially near Florida and along the US West Coast. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 10 people and spewed millions of barrels of crude, highlighted the enduring risks of offshore drilling, particularly for coastal communities whose economies are intertwined with tourism.
“We are excited and thankful that the Biden administration recognizes the immense value of Florida’s Gulf Coast,” said Martha Collins, executive director of the Healthy Gulf nonprofit advocacy group. “From its white sandy beaches to its vibrant marine life, Florida’s Gulf Coast defines a way of life cherished by millions,” and “today’s decision helps protect this special area from industrial oil and gas operations.”
Industry Reaction
Oil industry leaders panned the move, saying widespread restrictions — even on territory that’s of little interest for drilling now — undermine domestic energy potential.
Such blanket bans “threaten our economic and national security by creating political barriers to our own resources,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. “Even if there’s no immediate interest in some areas, it’s crucial for the federal government to maintain the flexibility to adapt its energy policy, especially in response to unexpected global changes like the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The US oil industry has long lobbied for more opportunities offshore, where wells tapping conventional reserves can yield crude for decades — unlike the smaller jackpots from onshore shale development. But there’s a long chain of activity between the initial sale of an offshore lease and eventual production.
There are no active oil and gas leases in federal waters in the Bering Sea or along the US East Coast, where Biden is protecting some 334 million acres from Canada to the southern tip of Florida. Roughly four dozen wells were drilled off the US East Coast in the 1970s and 1980s, but the area’s last sale of leases was in 1983, and oil has never been produced from the region.
Oil companies hold about a dozen leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and roughly 30 in federal waters near southern California, where the last lease sale was held in 1984. Those are unaffected by the withdrawals.
Mon, January 6, 2025
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking offshore oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of US coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risks” and “unnecessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs.
Biden’s move is enshrined in a pair of presidential memoranda being issued Monday, burnishing his legacy on conservation and fighting climate change just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Yet unlike other actions Biden has taken to constrain fossil fuel development, this one could be harder for Trump to unwind, since it’s rooted in a 72-year-old provision of federal law that empowers presidents to withdraw US waters from oil and gas leasing without explicitly authorizing revocations.
Biden is ruling out future oil and gas leasing along the US East and West Coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and a sliver of the Northern Bering Sea — an area teeming with seabirds, marine mammals, fish and other wildlife that indigenous people have depended on for millennia. The action doesn’t affect energy development under existing offshore leases, and it won’t prevent the sale of more drilling rights in Alaska’s gas-rich Cook Inlet or the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which together provide about 14% of US oil and gas production.
The president cast the move as achieving a careful balance between conservation and energy security.
“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,” Biden said in a statement. “We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient and the food they produce secure — and keeping energy prices low.”
Some of the areas Biden is protecting were already withdrawn from oil and gas leasing by Trump during the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign. But the incoming president’s protections for waters hugging Florida’s west coast and the southeast US were set to expire in 2032, whereas Biden is making them permanent.
Trump on Monday vowed to reverse Biden’s actions as soon as he takes office.
“I’ll un-ban it immediately,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show. “I have the right to un-ban it immediately. What’s he doing? Why is he doing it?”
Trump could issue an order revoking the designations as soon as he’s inaugurated, just as he did with President Barack Obama’s withdrawals in 2017. Yet an Alaska-based federal district court rejected Trump’s reversal, and no appeals court has ever ruled on the matter.
Republican and Democratic politicians from coastal states have pushed to keep some of the affected waters free from drilling, especially near Florida and along the US West Coast. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 10 people and spewed millions of barrels of crude, highlighted the enduring risks of offshore drilling, particularly for coastal communities whose economies are intertwined with tourism.
“We are excited and thankful that the Biden administration recognizes the immense value of Florida’s Gulf Coast,” said Martha Collins, executive director of the Healthy Gulf nonprofit advocacy group. “From its white sandy beaches to its vibrant marine life, Florida’s Gulf Coast defines a way of life cherished by millions,” and “today’s decision helps protect this special area from industrial oil and gas operations.”
Industry Reaction
Oil industry leaders panned the move, saying widespread restrictions — even on territory that’s of little interest for drilling now — undermine domestic energy potential.
Such blanket bans “threaten our economic and national security by creating political barriers to our own resources,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. “Even if there’s no immediate interest in some areas, it’s crucial for the federal government to maintain the flexibility to adapt its energy policy, especially in response to unexpected global changes like the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The US oil industry has long lobbied for more opportunities offshore, where wells tapping conventional reserves can yield crude for decades — unlike the smaller jackpots from onshore shale development. But there’s a long chain of activity between the initial sale of an offshore lease and eventual production.
There are no active oil and gas leases in federal waters in the Bering Sea or along the US East Coast, where Biden is protecting some 334 million acres from Canada to the southern tip of Florida. Roughly four dozen wells were drilled off the US East Coast in the 1970s and 1980s, but the area’s last sale of leases was in 1983, and oil has never been produced from the region.
Oil companies hold about a dozen leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and roughly 30 in federal waters near southern California, where the last lease sale was held in 1984. Those are unaffected by the withdrawals.
The US government is currently on track to hold just three auctions of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico over the next five years, under an anemic plan developed by the Biden administration. Congressional Republicans have been considering mandating more sales as a way to raise revenue that can offset the cost of extending tax cuts.
--With assistance from Stephanie Lai, Michelle Jamrisko and Chloe Whiteaker.
Bloomberg Businessweek
--With assistance from Stephanie Lai, Michelle Jamrisko and Chloe Whiteaker.
Bloomberg Businessweek
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