Joe Biden (or whoever is pulling his strings) seems determined to sabotage the fresh Trump administration in any way he can. The latest scandal is the signing of an order banning offshore drilling for gas and oil along almost the entire US coast, including in Alaskan waters. President-elect Donald Trump responded Monday by saying he would lift the “ridiculous” drilling ban “immediately.”
But it may not be that elementary.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised that if elected, he would expand oil and gas production to boost U.S.-generated energy.
However, Biden issued Exactly two weeks before the end of his term, he issued an eleventh-hour order on Monday morning to prevent such actions, announcing a enduring halt to most fresh oil and gas drilling in U.S. coastal and offshore waters, covering an area of about 625 million acres to.
“It’s ridiculous. “I’m going to rescind it immediately,” Trump said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Monday. “What is he doing?”
Here’s the catch:
The executive order, issued under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), aims to block future oil and natural gas leases along the east and west coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of Alaska’s northern Bering Sea.
Trump said he had the “right” to reverse such a measure, but given that Biden had issued the order based on a 1953 law that allowed the president to impose bans on oil and gas development To enact it, he would not be able to simply reverse it.
The law in question is USC Chapter 29, Subchapter 3“Outer continental shelves”. This seems to rule out the possibility that the bans are simply moved back into the “OPEN” drawer by reversing an earlier order. Furthermore, there was already a judicial finding supporting this claim.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term, a federal judge ruled that the OCSLA does not allow presidents to overturn bans issued by previous administrations. That means Trump would need congressional approval to reverse Biden’s decision.
Biden may have managed to chock the Trump Energy Express. Litigation will almost certainly ensue unless congressional Republicans pull the aged establishment trick of undermining congressional approval for the repeal of a typically Brobdignagian omnibus bill – gravy for the goose, so to speak.
Here’s the part that really makes Joe Biden look petty and vindictive, not that he didn’t already look that way. The outgoing president cited concerns about climate change as a reason for signing the order. If that was really his concern — if he really wanted to shut down energy production on essentially the entire continental shelf of the United States because of climate change — then why did he wait until two weeks before leaving office?
The answer is obvious: this arrangement has nothing to do with the climate. This is simply political slander and attempts at sabotage.
See related: Drill, Baby, Drill: AK Governor Calls on Trump to Roll Back Drilling Restrictions
Trump spokeswoman criticizes Biden’s last-minute ban on offshore drilling: “Revenge on the American people”
When Biden announced the ban, Alaska’s fresh Republican congressman Nick Begich III expressed his displeasure in typically Alaskan fashion:
Joe Biden is a son of a bitch. Hundreds of thousands of Alaska residents rely on natural gas from Cook Inlet to heat and power their homes, churches, schools and workplaces.
Actions like these should serve as a lasting reminder that the Democratic machine is more than content… pic.twitter.com/AeIViz7v2Z
— Nick Begich (@NickforAlaska) January 5, 2025
Nick is of course right in his claim. This is Joe Biden, and his deliberate attempt to raise American energy costs, shut down oil and natural gas production, and sabotage the fresh Trump administration proves it; His waiting until literally days before leaving office belies the claim that he is doing it for the climate.
