Oceana: How President Donald Trump can reopen the Ocean to protect the East and West coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea

Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.

The oil industry objected to the moratorium. The American Petroleum Institute president said that the current administration was using its last days in office to cement their record of doing everything they could to restrict domestic energy development. The API said that reversing this politically-motivated action should be a priority for Congress.

The green groups celebrated the announcement. “We see this as an epic ocean victory,” says Joseph Gordon, campaign director for Oceana, a nonprofit that advocates for ocean conservation worldwide. This is going to change the corner from fossil fuels to clean energy. It’s our hope that millions of Americans who are near the ocean or see places that are protected will take comfort knowing that those places won’t be affected by offshore drilling. [experience] an oil spill like Deepwater Horizon,” the devastating 2010 BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is, of course, a familiar divide, with industry representatives on one side and environmental groups on the other. For his part, Biden rejected that framing. He said in a statement that they don’t need to choose between growing the economy and protecting the environment. “Preserving America’s coasts and ocean is the right thing to do.”

President Donald Trump tried to reverse Obama’s action to protect the waters from drilling with no end date. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act allows a president to protect waters indefinitely, and there is no provision for removing that protection.

The Trump administration can’t take away these protections, according to Kevin Book. He says the administration will most likely look to a Congressional pathway as a means of resolution.

A filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill could be a path for reopening these acres to oil development. That would be attractive not just as a way to follow through on Trump’s campaign promises to “drill, baby, drill,” but also for the budgetary benefits: offshore oil lease auctions make money for the federal government.

Book says with Republicans in Congress promising a reconciliation bill this summer, these protections — or some of them — might be rolled back as early as this year.

The climate crisis is coming to an end: Joe Biden apologizes for his actions against drilling off the U.S. coast during the warmest recorded history

Biden’s decision reflects what coastal communities, business and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.

He said that the climate crisis is threatening communities across the country and that it was time to protect the coasts for the generations to come.

After initially moving to vastly expand offshore drilling, Trump retreated and became a target of protests in Florida and other coastal states.

Trump wants to increase U.S. oil and gas drilling as he seeks to establish “energy dominance” around the world.

Environmentalists said new oil and gas drilling needs to be limited to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The year 2024 had the hottest recorded history.

Gordon thanked Biden for listening to the opinions of the people in coastal communities who were against drilling and for the bipartisan tradition of protecting the coast.

The spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, called Biden’s action “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. We will drill, baby, drill if Joe Biden fails.

The government must offer 60 million acres of offshore oil and gas leases in one year before it can give out offshore wind leases under the terms of the climate law.