With only two weeks in his presidency, Joe Biden will ban future oil and gas bores in front of the entire east and west coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the remaining parts of the northern Bering Ceavy in Alaska.
Biden will sign two memoranda on Monday to prohibit eternal offshore drilling over more than 625 million hectares of hectares in order to advance his commitment to the preservation of 30% of the US country and water until 2030, according to a statement by the White House.
The commands are carried out on request for cross-party state and local guides in coastal areas, said Biden and reflect that the rapid resources for fossil fuels in these areas would not be worth the risk of environmental, health and economic trays that are made of oil and gas Execution could arise.
“When compensating for the many uses and advantages of the America Ocean, I realize,” said Biden in the explanation.
The elected President Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20, criticized Biden throughout the campaign of last year’s Moves Trump campaign, said that the country’s energy generation had reduced. Trump argued that a ephemeral freezing of oil and gas rental contracts, the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline and other environmental measures taken by the bidges, were part of what led to increased costs for consumers.
Economists said This connection is doubtfulTrump is expected to pursue guidelines for expanding oil and gas production.
“I will do it”
In a statement on Monday morning, Trump spokesman Karoline Leavitt criticized the move of biden. “This is a shameful decision that the political revenge on the American people, which President Trump gave a mandate to increase the bores and gas prices, should pursue a political revenge. Be assured that Joe Biden will fail and we will drill, baby, drill, ”she said.
On a Monday morning Radio interviewTrump promised to turn the move back.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said Host Hugh Hewitt. “I’ll escape it immediately. I will do it. I have the right to release it immediately. “
However, it is unclear if Trump had the authority to undo bidens action alone.
A similar problem played in Trump’s first term in court, but was finally rejected after he lost his re -election offer in 2020.
In April 2017, Trump granted an executive order to revoke offshore drilling restrictions that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, had set up.
Environmental groups sued and a federal court in Alaska faced the Trump administration and were of the opinion that the law on the offshore bore, the law on the foreign continent, enables a president to withdraw areas from the drill, but did not allow a president to revoke these withdrawals.
The Trump administration appealed in 2019, but the problem was solved before an appeal when bidding started his office and the Obama withdrawals reinstalled in 2021. The court dismissed the case as a moot without deciding on the advantages of the presidency.
This means that the precedent that is defined at the level of the district court should remain for Trump’s second presidency, said Seth Nelson, spokesman for the environmental group Evergreen Action, said on Monday.
“This precedent suggests that the elected President Trump would be subject to considerable legal obstacles when trying to reverse the prohibition of President Biden by Executive Order and requires an act of congress instead,” wrote Nelson in an email.
John Seibels, a spokesman for the US House Natural Resources, Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Arkansas, said on Monday that the prohibition would probably require the cooperation of the congress.
“It is still early, but based on what we have seen, this will probably require a work of the congress to roll back this ban,” he wrote in an e -mail.
In a statement on Monday, Westerman said that the GOP majority of House would work with Trump to augment energy generation, and that the congress would utilize the legislative procedure known as a budgetary vote in order to reverse the energy policy of the bidies.
“” While the federal deficit is growing, President Biden’s decision, 625 million tomorrow, undermining the future energy potential potential, undermining one of the largest sources of income in our nation – energy income that is only in second place, “said Westerman.” In the 119th congress We utilize every tool, including reconciliation, to restore and remove these income. “
“We don’t have to choose”
However, Biden described offshore drilling in the huge areas that he protects for long-term economic health in the United States, partly by protecting the fishing and tourism industry.
“We do not have to decide between the protection of the environment and the growth of our economy or between the healthcare system of our oceans, the coasts and the food and food that are safe and to keep energy prices low,” said Biden. “These are wrong decisions. Protecting American coasts and oceans is the right one and will facilitate the communities and the economy to thrive over generations. “
The protection “does not have an expiry date and prohibits the entire future oil and natural gas leasing in the removed areas”, according to a factual sheet from the White House.
The order protects 334 million acres along the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico and extend from the border between Maine-Canada to the top of Florida.
Almost 250 million hectares of Pacific coast, which is the habitat for “seals, sea lions, whales, fish and countless seabirds” off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington. The governors of the three states had asked for protection according to the Fact Sheet. The last federal rental contract in front of the west coast on the mainland was in 1984.
And 44 million tomorrow of the northern Mining Sea are protected. The protective measures were sought by many local communities from Alaska, said the White House.
“This is an area in which oil and gas development for coastal communities would represent serious dangers and in which the health of these waters for nutritional safety and for the culture of more than 70 coastal tribes, including the Yup’ik, Cup, of crucial importance is. IK and Inupiaq people who have rely on these resources for thousands of years, ”said the White House.
Last updated 9:44 a.m., January 7, 2025
