1 day Ago By Paul Rogers
In a sweeping environmental decision during the final days of his presidency, President Biden on Monday banned new offshore oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of America’s oceans, including all federal waters in the Pacific off California, Oregon and Washington. Biden said the move , which also includes a prohibition on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and in portions of the Bering Sea in Alaska, is vital to protect coastal communities, marine wildlife, the fishing industry and tourism from oil spills and pollution, such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time,” Biden said.
“That drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs. It is not worth the risks.” President-elect Donald Trump blasted the decision.
“Look, it’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said in a radio interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.” That may be difficult, however.
Biden acted under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act . That law, signed by former President Dwight Eisenhower, gives presidents broad authority to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and development. After former President Obama used the law to ban drilling in parts of the Arctic Ocean off Alaska, Trump repealed his order after taking office in 2017.
Environmental groups sued. In 2019, a federal judge in Alaska ruled that Obama’s ban could not be undone without an act of Congress. Republicans currently have a very narrow majority in the House of Representatives — 219 to 215 — meaning they can only lose one vote and still pass bills.
Republicans in coastal states like California, Oregon and Washington, along with places like New York and Florida, are not likely to vote for new offshore drilling off their coastlines, longtime observers of the issue said Monday. “This is Trump-proof. It won’t be reversed,” said Richard Charter, a senior fellow with the Ocean Foundation, a non-profit environmental group.
“It is very profound, and I expect it will be long-lasting.” Oil industry officials criticized the move. “President Biden’s decision to ban new offshore oil and natural gas development across approximately 625 million acres of U.
S. coastal and offshore waters is significant and catastrophic,” said Ron Neal, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America Offshore Committee. “It represents a major attack on the oil and natural gas industry.
” California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday took the opposite view. “Hundreds of miles of California’s iconic coastline are now fully protected,” Newsom said, adding “new offshore drilling has no place in California.
” Polls consistently show Californians oppose new oil and gas drilling along California’s coastline. Overall, just 31% said they support it, while 78% favored construction of offshore wind turbines, which Biden and Newsom have pushed for, according to a 2024 poll by the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California . California is the nation’s 7th-largest oil-producing state.
Most of its oil comes from inland wells in places like Kern, Los Angeles and Fresno counties. But there are about 30 offshore platforms and artificial islands where oil is produced in the ocean, all located in Southern California off Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties. Those platforms date back to the 1950s.
No new ones have been constructed in decades because of opposition from political leaders, conservation groups and the tourism and fishing industries. The last new platform built in Southern California waters was in 1984. State leaders and many residents still remember the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which resulted in more than 3 million gallons of black crude from a Union Oil platform coating beaches for miles.
After former President Reagan and his Interior Secretary James Watt pushed for drilling off Big Sur, Monterey Bay and along the San Mateo and Sonoma coasts during the 1980s, former California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, signed a law in 1992 banning all new oil drilling in state waters out to three miles offshore. But federal waters extend to 200 miles.
Drilling is banned in national marine sanctuaries, such as Monterey Bay, Greater Farallones and Channel Islands. Biden established the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in November, which stretches along 156 miles of coast in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Embracing the slogan “Drill Baby, Drill!” in January 2018, Trump announced he would seek to open 90% of the offshore areas in the United States, including most of the California coast, to new oil and gas drilling.
But nothing ever came of those plans. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that year prohibiting California’s State Lands Commission from approving any new pipelines, wharfs or other facilities out to three miles offshore that could be used to expand oil production.
On top of that, Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives in 2019, and led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, pushed through a budget that blocked the Department of Interior from spending any money on new offshore leasing activity. After Republicans in Florida, North Carolina, and other states told Trump officials that he had a better chance of winning there in the 2020 presidential election if he dropped oil drilling plans, he used the same 1953 law Biden used Monday to withdraw those areas from drilling until 2032. “I’m pleased beyond belief,” Charter said.
“This makes sure our beaches won’t look like the Gulf Coast after the Deepwater Horizon spill. This means the California coast will always be there as we love it.”.
