In what many see as a move to hinder incoming President Trump’s plan to increase U.S. oil production, President Biden is issuing a sweeping last-minute order to ban offshore oil drilling in federal waters around the entire U.S. East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and 44 million acres of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
Announced on Jan. 6, just two weeks before Trump is sworn into office, the action drew a sharp response from Trump’s team.
“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,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
Alaska’s newly elected U.S. Congressman Nick Begich also had harsh words for the outgoing president.
“Joe Biden is a son of a bitch,” he posted to Twitter. “Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans rely on natural gas from the Cook Inlet to heat and electrify their homes, churches, schools, and workplaces. Actions like this should serve as a permanent reminder that the Democrat machine is more than happy to sacrifice us all in the name of their sanctimonious, socialist-driven, climate science religion.”
“It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said of Biden’s action.
Trump has repeatedly promised to do all he can to increase U.S. oil drilling capabilities in order to bring down energy costs.
Undoing Biden’s actions, however, may prove difficult, as he invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, that was intended to make an outgoing president’s action more difficult to reverse. Unlike most other executive actions, the Trump administration would likely need Congress to reverse the law.
Trump immediately blasted Biden’s ban.
“It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” he declared on the Hugh Hewitt Show. “You know, they talk about a transition. They’re always saying, ‘Oh no, we want to have a smooth transition from party to party for you know of government.’ Well, they’re making it really difficult. They’re throwing everything they can in the way.”
In all, Biden’s actions will lock up more than 625 million acres of the U.S. ocean from offshore drilling, a move he believes is necessary to advance his controversial climate agenda.
The drilling bans have no expiration date, and prohibit all future oil and natural gas leasing in the areas affected. President Biden first used this authority in January of 2021 when he locked up part of the Northern Bering Sea, and again in March 2023 to withdraw 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea from future oil and gas leasing.
His latest move blocks offshore drilling in 334 million acres of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from Canada to the southern tip of Florida, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. It also locks up nearly 250 million acres of Federal waters off the West Coast of the mainland U.S.
Additionally, Biden’s action will block drilling in 44 million acres of the Northern Bering Sea in northwest Alaska, where there are no currently existing oil and gas leases.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
A White House fact sheet claims that this is an area where “oil and gas development would pose severe dangers to coastal communities, and where the health of these waters is critically important to food security and to the culture of more than 70 coastal Tribes, including the Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Inupiaq people who have relied on these resources for millennia.”
The White House claimed that Biden’s ban is part of his “ambitious climate agenda” to help “ensure our oceans and coasts are resilient to the threats of climate change and nature loss.”
8 Comments
Biden’s action will block 44 million acres in the North Bering Sea, where there are no leases. Big whup for Alaska! But let’s get all the MAGAS stirred up!
There are leases now,..” where they were not” before…. So, can you imagine that ??? TDS is a serious condition.
Truth Denial Sickness?
No, Jeff…” Trump Denial Syndrome “.. Which seems to be one of the infections we see here in these threads… Suggesting that there are areas where there are no leases now …. that because of that… there will be no future leases.. Like petroleum, or not.. research the very long list of products that we like/need, and use daily, which are produced using the petroleum processes.. It may surprise a lot of people.
As a fly-fishing guide, Rene, you are expected to be against prosperity from resource extraction and development. Perhaps that explains why you troll The Watchman. It is in your own interest. Guides do not like a growing Alaska resource economy. They profit from federal lock-ups. Likely you also want to keep Pebble from being developed. I wonder where those batteries are going to come from. I hope you don’t drive an EV.
Just part of the UN Climate Agenda rearing its menacing head, Folks. Better get used to UN Agenda 2030.
Brandon is hell bent on destroying America on his way out, oh wait I’m sorry, he isn’t mentally capable so its obviously his handlers, and Soro’s receiving a freedom medal? That says it all!
Nick Begich lied. the natural gas and oil alaska uses is not its own. in fact, most oil drilled in alaska is shipped out of alaska.