President Joe Biden announced Monday that he would ban oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The executive action closed more than 625 million acres of the ocean. Biden invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which allows presidents to stop oil and gas leasing and development in federal waters.
Invoking the law will make it harder for incoming president Donald Trump to overturn the action, and he may need Congress to grant him the authority to change it.
Trump said he would undo the measure on his first day, even if it had to be challenged in court.
Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a response to the drilling ban, writing, “This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
“The Biden administration has waged war on American energy and is intent on continuing that war until the very last minute,” said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of the change. “These policies have crippled our economy and destroyed thousands of high-paying jobs for Texans and other Americans. All of these will end on January 20.”
Biden cited climate and conservation as reasons for the ban. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised U.S. energy dominance and to end Biden’s climate change initiatives.
