Trump promises reversal of Biden drill ban

Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald on Jan 6, 2025

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President-elect Donald Trump vowed to overturn outgoing President Joe Biden’s eleventh-hour ban on expanded offshore drilling in the U.S.

On Monday, Biden declared he would invoke the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prevent offshore drilling along the East and West coasts, through parts of the Gulf of Mexico and portions of the Northern Bering Sea.

“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, 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. It is not worth the risks,” Biden said in a statement.

According to Biden, both Democratic and Republican governors and lawmakers have “worked and called for greater protection of our ocean and coastlines from harms that offshore oil and natural gas drilling can bring,” and his decision reflects his conversations with those on the ground in coastal communities.

“In balancing the many uses and benefits of America’s ocean, it is clear to me that the relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am withdrawing do not justify the environmental, public health, and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling,” he said.

Trump’s transition team was quick to take umbrage. His national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the decision a “disgraceful” act of political revenge against voters 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,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Trump’s rapid response director, Jake Schneider, said Biden’s decision to ban “oil and gas drilling on 625 million acres of U.S. oceans,” is but a part of his plan to “burn it all down as he nears exit.”

Trump himself took to his Truth Social media platform to declare that anything Biden does in these waning days of his administration will be quickly overturned with the start of a second Trump Administration.

“Biden is doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult (as) possible, from Lawfare such as has never been seen before, to costly and ridiculous Executive Orders on the Green New Scam and other money wasting Hoaxes. Fear not, these ‘Orders’ will all be terminated shortly, and we will become a Nation of Common Sense and Strength. MAGA,” he wrote, capitalization his.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey hailed Biden’s announcement as good for New England and its many sea industries.

“Our fishermen, seaside communities, and precious ecosystems deserve this peace of mind and this protection from pollution. I applaud this decision to put the safeguarding of Massachusetts’ economy, cultural heritage, and environment above the interests of Big Oil barons,” Markey said in a statement.

According to the White House, about 40% of the U.S. population lives in a coastal community which relies “on a healthy ocean to thrive.” Nearly 400 municipalities and over 2,300 local, state, Tribal, and federal officials responsible for their coastal communities, the White House said in a fact sheet, have “formally opposed the expansion of offshore drilling in these areas in view of its severe environmental, health, and economic threats.”

The ban order, the White House says, means that over the four years he’s been in office “President Biden has now conserved more than 670 million acres of U.S. lands, waters, and ocean – more than any president in history.”

The U.S. is the world’s largest oil producer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a position the nation has maintained for at least the last seven years. It is not the case, the president said, that the nation must choose between cheaper energy and a cleaner environment.

“We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low. Those are false choices. Protecting America’s coasts and ocean is the right thing to do, and will help communities and the economy to flourish for generations to come,” Biden said.

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