WASHINGTON — President Biden on Monday banned offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coast — with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team calling it “political revenge” and the soon-to-be 47th president pledging “I’ll unban it immediately.”
The massive new off-limits ocean zone is larger than the states of Alaska and Texas combined — and more than six times the area of the state of California .
Biden, 82, announced the move just two weeks before leaving office, using a law that has no clear mechanism for a future president to reverse the order, meaning congressional action may be needed to do so.
“I am taking action to protect the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from oil and natural gas drilling and the harm it can cause,” Biden said in a statement.
President Biden speaks at a reception for new Democratic members of Congress in the State Dining Room of the White House, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Washington. AP“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,” Biden said.
“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.”
Trump quickly told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Monday morning that he was preparing to undo Biden’s order.
“I see it just came over that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said.
Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also slammed Biden’s action.
“This is 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,” said the incoming White House press secretary.
Rep. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio), an incoming member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told The Post that the panel was ready to help Trump retract the new restriction.
“Joe Biden’s farewell gift to Americans: more nonsensical regulations and higher energy prices,” Rulli said. “Under President Trump we will reverse the Biden-Harris Green New Deal scam and achieve energy independence.”
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign town hall at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center & Fairgrounds, Oct. 14, 2024, in Oaks, Pa. APTrump campaigned on making America “energy dominant” — arguing that lowering the cost of transportation, electricity and manufacturing would in turn tamp down inflation and increase US productivity.
The Republican has sharply criticized Biden’s prior actions to prohibit the construction of oil and gas pipelines, restrict the export of natural gas and impose a court-reversed moratorium on new oil and gas drilling permits on federal land.
The White House said that Biden’s action will shield “the entire U.S. [sic] East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and natural gas leasing.”
The order uses authorities within the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and does not impact much of the resource-rich Gulf of Mexico, America’s primary offshore source of domestic petroleum and natural gas.
Trump himself put a much smaller segment of the US coastline off-limits to drilling at the end of his first term.
In 2020, the then-45th president banned drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — expanding a more narrow expiring moratorium on Florida’s Gulf Coast — and likened himself to conservationist President Teddy Roosevelt.
A person fishes with offshore oil and gas platform Esther in the distance on January 5, 2025, in Seal Beach, California. Getty Images“Who would have thought, Trump is the great environmentalist?” Trump said at the time. “I am, I am. I believe strongly in it.”
Biden aides frequently counter Republican criticism of his energy record by pointing out that US oil production notched a record high in 2023, though Trump has vowed to greatly increase that level.
“We’ll soon unleash American energy, and this will be done at levels not seen before, issuing quick approvals for pipelines, drilling, and other infrastructure,” Trump said last month. “It’ll be clean energy, and we’ll bring in the price of electricity, and we’re going to bring it down fast.”
