Biden will ban new oil drilling in large areas of the US Atlantic and Pacific, Bloomberg News Reuters reports
(Reuters) – President Joe Biden intends to ban new offshore oil and gas development on 625 million hectares (250 million acres) of U.S. coastline, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
The ban, to be announced on Monday, precludes the sale of drilling rights in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the report said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Biden is leaving open the possibility of new oil and leases in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which account for about 14% of the nation’s production of these fuels, according to the report.
The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside business hours.
The ban would cement Biden’s legacy on tackling climate change and his goal to decarbonize the US economy by 2050.
The The New York Times (NYSE:) reported that part of the law on which Biden’s decision relies, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, gives the president broad discretion to ban drilling and does not include text that would allow President-elect Donald Trump or other future presidents to revoke the bans.
Biden, Trump and Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama used the law to ban the sale of offshore drilling rights in some coastal areas.
In 2017, Trump tried to reverse Obama’s Arctic and Atlantic withdrawals at the end of his presidency, but a federal judge ruled in 2019 that the law did not give presidents the legal authority to overturn previous bans.
