President-elect Trump has promised to overturn Vice President Biden’s conservation and climate change policies when he takes office later this month.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden banned offshore drilling across an immense area of American coastal waters on Monday. This comes weeks before Donald Trump, who has promised to increase domestic energy production vastly, takes office on January 20.
According to a White House statement, the ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
The administration, however, believes the ban was aligned with the president’s agenda for fighting climate change and the target of protecting 30% of US lands and waters by 2030. It would also cover an estimated 625 million acres, or 253 million hectares, of ocean.
The President also referenced the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, citing that the low drilling potential of the areas included in the ban was not worth the public health and economic risks associated with future leasing.
This 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, Mr. Biden said in a statement.
During his term, Mr. Biden has restricted new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters, drawing criticism from drilling states and companies.
