Platforms B and C are offshore oil and gas platforms operated by DCOR, LLC, located in the Dos Cuadras oil field off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, United States, on Monday, January 15, 2024.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The White House announced on Monday President Joe Biden New offshore operations will be banned oil and gas Drilling occurs along much of the U.S. coastline.
The order will protect approximately 625 million acres of ocean along the U.S. coast Atlantic and the Pacific coast, gulf of mexico and Alaska Bering Sea In a statement announcing the move, the White House said the move was aimed at avoiding “environmental and economic risks and hazards.”
It’s also an attempt to protect Biden’s climate legacy from the energy policies pursued by Republicans and President-elect Trump’s energy policies.
Biden will use an obscure provision in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) that gives the president the power to indefinitely repossess unleased lands on the Outer Continental Shelf.
And former President Barack Obama Use the Act in 2016 Monday’s much larger move to protect 119 million acres will be seen as a major win for environmental groups, which have long argued that further drilling contradicts the U.S. government’s stated goals of cutting back on land. Emissions that contribute to climate change.
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“Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we cherish and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs. It is not worth the risk,” Biden said in a statement.
He added: “As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we transition to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.”
Biden’s decision brings the total area of oceans he protects to 670 million acres – more than any other president – and it could be frustrating Trump’s plan In his first administration, he built economic growth by doubling oil and gas production.
During the first administration, Trump used executive orders to try to overturn Obama’s decision to invoke OCSLA. in the last month of his presidential termbut the decision is knocked down in court. That means Congress may need to take action to overturn Monday’s announcement from the Biden administration.
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Wright has previously written about the need to increase fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty, and said in a 2023 video posted to his LinkedIn profile that “there is no climate crisis and we are not in one.” The same goes for the energy transition.
While many of the protected areas have not attracted much interest from the energy industry, the Biden administration has also said the ban would cover the entire eastern U.S. Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Oil companies have long been interested in both areas, despite Trump himself taking action during his first administration to block drilling in those areas.
In 2020, Trump issued Drilling suspended in a region where oil and gas exploration is widely opposed by Florida Republicans and North Carolina voters.
Biden said that in many areas protected by Monday’s declaration, “these developments will do little to help meet the nation’s energy needs.”
In response to this message, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland “President Biden’s actions today are part of our administration’s work to make bold and lasting changes that recognize the impact of oil and gas drilling on our nation’s coastlines,” it said in a statement.
She added, “The actions the President is taking today reflect what states, tribes and local communities share with us – supporting the health of our oceans and coastlines by protecting them from unnecessary oil and gas development. The intense and overwhelming need for resilience.
Citing lessons learned from 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill — As 134 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico — “We don’t need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or keeping our oceans healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure,” Biden said. Making a choice between keeping energy prices low is the wrong choice.
