President Joe Biden has invoked the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prevent Donald Trump from permitting new oil and natural gas leases. Offshore drilling in federal waters along the East and West coasts of the US, eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska are now forbidden.
Biden boasted that this measure would protect 625 million acres of federal waters, but in reality, this is a last-ditch effort to prevent incoming President Donald Trump from reversing everything Biden did that made America dependent on foreign energy. “Joe Biden clearly wants high gas prices to be his legacy,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, posted on X.
This political stunt will cost American jobs and cause trouble for Trump, who has stated that energy independence is a top priority. “’Suspending leases in Alaska’s 1002 Area is in direct conflict with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, through which Congress mandates an oil and gas leasing program be established on the non-wilderness Coastal Plain, and ordered at least two lease sales by 2024.,” Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski stated. “In addition, The Act specifically states that the purpose of the 1002 area of ANWR is oil and gas development. The oil and gas leasing program established by the Trump Administration meets the legal mandates required by Congress including imposing a framework with a range of environmental safeguards that are successfully guiding production elsewhere in northern Alaska.”
Utter pettiness as it is clear why the president waited until the final two weeks of his term to invoke this order. The 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) prevents presidents from overturning such bans without congressional action. In 2019, during Trump’s first term, a federal judge declared that presidents may not reverse such bans. Trump believes he has the right to “unban it immediately” on “day one” in office, but the legalities of OSCLA remain unclear.
During his presidency, Biden nearly depleted America’s petroleum reserves. He begged foreign nations to increase their supply as he forced America to purchase that oil at a markup. The war in Ukraine only amplified the energy crisis as global demand skyrocketed. Yet he refused to back away from the climate change agenda even if that meant suffocating the American economy.
Biden can pander to his Agenda 2030 climate change supporters and vilify Trump further by claiming he does not care about the environment. Despite efforts continually failing, Biden still believes that the US can reach a net-zero greenhouse gas economy by 2050. Demand has not waned, and America must import oil if it cannot derive its own. Biden has spent his entire term undermining the American economy, beginning with the energy sector. He revoked the Keystone XL pipeline deal on day one, and at the eleventh hour, he is marking his exit with one last blow to American energy.
