Biden Expected to Permanently Ban Oil Drilling in Some Federal Waters

[highplainsdem]

Source: NYT

President Biden is expected to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling in large sections of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as other federal waters, in a way that could be difficult for the Trump administration to unwind, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Mr. Biden intends to invoke an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, that would give him wide latitude to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing, said the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the policy publicly.

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While section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives a president wide leeway to bar drilling, it does not include language that would allow Mr. Trump or any future president to revoke a ban.

That was tested after President Barack Obama banned offshore drilling in parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean. During his first term in office Mr. Trump tried to revoke the ban. In 2019, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Alaska ruled that Mr. Obama’s ban could not be undone without an act of Congress.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/climate/federal-waters-oil-drilling-ban.html

[Dave Bowman]

1. That's great but can the moron go around this?