By Jacob Fischler | AZ Mirror
With just two weeks left in his presidency, Joe Biden will prohibit future oil and gas drilling off the entire East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the remaining portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.
Biden will sign two memoranda Monday to permanently ban offshore drilling over more than 625 million acres of ocean to advance his commitment to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, a White House statement said.
The orders come at the request of bipartisan state and local leaders in coastal areas, Biden said, and reflect that the paltry fossil fuel resources in those areas would not be worth the risks of environmental, health and economic harms that could result from oil and gas exploration.
“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,” Biden said in the statement.
President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office Jan. 20, criticized Biden throughout last year’s campaign for moves Trump said lowered the country’s energy production. A temporary freeze on oil and gas leases, rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline and other environmental measures taken by the Biden administration were part of what led to increased costs for consumers, Trump argued.
